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"Beyond a thousand years from now humans are not quite recognizably human, and I have trouble finding characters."
- Larry Niven

Focusing  
  Psychoactive microbe improves the attention-focusing ability of those infected.  

The mindrot is a plague that was turned to the service of civilization. It "spreads through the brain in a nearly harmless way, infecting about ninety percent of the glial cells. And now we control the release of neuractives."

"Focusing ennobles. It is the key to Emergent success, and a much more subtle thing than you can imagine. It's not just that we've created a psychoactive microbe. This is one whose growth within the brain can be controlled with millimeter precision - and once in place, the ensemble can be guided in its actions with the same precision."

"Don't you see? We can improve the attention-focusing aspects of consciousness: we can take humans and turn them into analytical engines." She spelled it out in wretched detail. On the Emergent worlds, the Focusing process was spread over the last years of a specialist's schooling, intensifying the graduate-school experience to produce genius...

For many days, Reynolt and her technicians had tweaked the virus, triggering genetic expression that precisely released the chemicals of thought - all guided by Emergent medical computers that gathered feedback from conventional brain diagnostics.

Technovelgy from A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge.
Published by Tor in 1999
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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from A Deepness in the Sky
  More Ideas and Technology by Vernor Vinge
  Tech news articles related to A Deepness in the Sky
  Tech news articles related to works by Vernor Vinge

Focusing-related news articles:
  - Will Scientists Learn How To Fine-Tune Autism?
  - Optogenetics - Fiber Optic Brain Control
  - Remote Control Of Brain Activity

Articles related to Medical
3D Printed Organs From Space
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User

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