Wild Minds by Michael Swanwick

"Wild Minds" is a 1998 science fiction short story by Michael Swanwick. It is about a man who refuses to be like everyone else and get his brain optimized. Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell: "Wild Minds" follows Thom, a Catholic man who lives in a future Glasgow, Scotland. After meeting Hellene, an HR representative from Prague who does have an optimized brain, he brings her back to his place for a visit. She tries to convince him of the benefits of optimization, and he tries to explain the reasons he hasn't done it. What follows is a very interesting conversation about how our society may turn out if scientists really do figure out a way to make our brains more focused. There are some thought provoking ideas, such as employment prejudice, new types of elitism, the role of conservative religions and law cases concerning mental imbalance. My grandfather used to talk about the value of a good education. His generation was obsessed with the idea. But when the workings of the human brain…