It's a bit like that old experiment where rats were given a button that directly controlled electrodes implanted in the pleasure centers of their brains, and they promptly abandoned all other instincts just to continue pushing the button, to the point where they would die from starvation even with food within easy reach.
It's a bit like that old experiment where rats were given a button that directly controlled electrodes implanted in the pleasure centers of their brains, and they promptly abandoned all other instincts just to continue pushing the button, to the point where they would die from starvation even with food within easy reach.
Turns out, getting happy chemicals pumped into your body is pretty bad and also addictive as hell. I wonder if it's like the Matrix and they're being used as batteries as well.
Idunno, I'd do it I mean not knowing the universe sucks and feeling at least content all the time.
I mean how can suffer if I'm always content?
The thing is you won't feel anything without a contrast. There's not happiness without feeling sadness. Not heat without cold. Not relief without pain. You'll forget any sense of pleasure and grow like a vegetable doomed to exist for eternity. That's not what living is about.
The thing is you won't feel anything without a contrast. There's not happiness without feeling sadness. Not heat without cold. Not relief without pain. You'll forget any sense of pleasure and grow like a vegetable doomed to exist for eternity. That's not what living is about.
Maybe not, but surviving without suffering seems like a viable alternative.
Doubt anyone cares anymore, but seeing/reading this stuff is triggering.
Dopamine is better understood as having more to do with reinforcement learning, rather than just pleasure. Indeed, pain, anxiety, and stress have been strongly correlated with Dopamine as well. Basically, it motivates people to do do certain behaviors more often. And even then, that's not the whole picture, as recent research has shown that dopamine may even be correlated with making predictions, and other various behaviors.
Serotonin also is highly misunderstood, as though it's merely just low levels of the stuff that makes people depressed. And yet we've observed quite happy and energetic folks with lower than average serotonin levels. It's far and away from merely just being associated with "bliss."
And even then, chemical imbalance is a patchy theory/concept; too controversial to simply be stated accepted as fact.
There's been far too much misinformation by the media, drug companies, and the occasional blabber-mouthed scientist regarding serotonin and dopamine. I think that honestly, part of it stems from a desire to portray the brain as a cut-and-dry matter, a "chemical soup" rather than a complex, dynamic, and (albeit the science is still out on this) a chaotic interaction of networks.
Researching the actual science, the picture is far from complete, and even at times contradictory. Putting aside one's thoughts on the matters of consciousness and other related philosophical arguments, I think it's safe to say that the brain is quite the complex organ.
So this "utopia" might not even work from a scientific perspective. Injecting/tampering with our serotonin and dopamine levels on this sort of scale may either do nothing at all, or perhaps induce unintended side-effects.
In short, this is based on an outdated view of the brain, and far from the current consensus in the field(s).
Doubt anyone cares anymore, but seeing/reading this stuff is triggering.
Dopamine is better understood as having more to do with reinforcement learning, rather than just pleasure. Indeed, pain, anxiety, and stress have been strongly correlated with Dopamine as well. Basically, it motivates people to do do certain behaviors more often. And even then, that's not the whole picture, as recent research has shown that dopamine may even be correlated with making predictions, and other various behaviors.
Serotonin also is highly misunderstood, as though it's merely just low levels of the stuff that makes people depressed. And yet we've observed quite happy and energetic folks with lower than average serotonin levels. It's far and away from merely just being associated with "bliss."
And even then, chemical imbalance is a patchy theory/concept; too controversial to simply be stated accepted as fact.
There's been far too much misinformation by the media, drug companies, and the occasional blabber-mouthed scientist regarding serotonin and dopamine. I think that honestly, part of it stems from a desire to portray the brain as a cut-and-dry matter, a "chemical soup" rather than a complex, dynamic, and (albeit the science is still out on this) a chaotic interaction of networks.
Researching the actual science, the picture is far from complete, and even at times contradictory. Putting aside one's thoughts on the matters of consciousness and other related philosophical arguments, I think it's safe to say that the brain is quite the complex organ.
So this "utopia" might not even work from a scientific perspective. Injecting/tampering with our serotonin and dopamine levels on this sort of scale may either do nothing at all, or perhaps induce unintended side-effects.
In short, this is based on an outdated view of the brain, and far from the current consensus in the field(s).
Granted that the comic is scientifically inaccurate, but maybe the robot was dumbing down the science behind their happy pills to a level that a non-psychiatrist from the early 21st century would understand.
