Mind enhancement: A high impact, high neglect cause area?

Abstract

Update September 2022: In the meantime, I have published a more in-depth look at the status quo of the field of mind enhancement, its neglectedness, tractability, and possible involvement strategies here. I have since become relatively confident that some forms of EA involvement with mind enhancement are pressing and cost-effective and am planning to ramp up field building in this space. If you think I should update towards this being too dangerous or risky, or a waste of time I would love to hear from you!While relatively neglected within and outside EA, mind enhancement is possibly a very high impact cause area.TLDR: This post aims to raise awareness, provide a rough framework for classification and list the most important theoretical arguments and considerations regarding the impact/desirability of mind enhancement. My aim is to kick-start some high quality theoretical discussion to gather more perspectives and takes on this. A fleshed out cause area profile of mind enhancement including more in-depth analyses of feasibility and neglectedness and a rough overview of current most promising approaches for EA is coming up.