Instead of merely treating and preventing disease, new drugs and medical devices could also become tools for "human enhancement," letting some people become smarter, happier and stronger.

When scientists, ethicists and others met here recently to discuss the topic, some said changes are already happening so fast that nobody has a clear view of what is going on.

Much of the concern is not new. Stories about elite athletes' illegal use of steroids and other substances have kindled debate about performance and fairness. Numerous baseball players and golfers have used LASIK surgery to improve their vision to better than 20-20. Cosmetic surgery has increased by 150 percent in the past five years.

Already, several universities have established centers of bioethics and biotechnology where scholars attempt to peer over the horizon into an unpredictable "post-human" world.

Maxwell Mehlman, professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve, brushed aside the fear that by taking the place of natural talent, biomedical enhancement would give some people successes they have not earned.

Much of the discussion centered around the rapidly growing field of "neurotechnology" and its ability to enhance cognition, or make people smarter.

Zack Lynch, a neuroscience economic and social forecaster, said neurological and psychiatric illnesses make up the largest and fastest growing unmet medical market in the world.

As drug companies develop new technologies to treat these diseases, there will likely be spillover into the area of human enhancement, he predicted.

He said 40 different compounds he called "cogniceuticals" are now in clinical trials, but he thought "only about two" had the potential to actually enhance cognition.

For example, some stimulate the brain with weak electric currents to control symptoms of diseases like Parkinsonism and epilepsy and encourage brain repair following strokes.

He said the technologies help "those in the lower to mid-percentiles ... perform at a higher level in accordance with how their peers are performing."

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