Wireheading

[Erik Mesoy]

Wireheading refers to inserting a wire into the pleasure center of the brain and stimulating it by some means such as a pedal or button.

Rats who are given such a wire inevitably sit on the pedal until they die of thirst and starvation. Wireheading has not been tested on humans, for obvious reasons such as the angry mobs with pitchforks likely to storm the offices of anyone trying it, but we can nonetheless speculate, and it may be easily possible in the future.

So, a few questions:

1) Do you think the average person would wirehead themselves to death, given the opportunity?
2) Do you think you would wirehead yourself to death, given the opportunity?
3) Do you think that a normal person should be allowed, legally speaking, to wirehead themselves to death? (If you want to go "can't prevent it", turn the question around and ask: Do you think there should be a legal right to interrupt someone else from wireheading themselves to death to ask them to reconsider?)
4) Do you think that you should, morally speaking, intervene if someone is wireheading themselves to death?

 

[Fifty]

1. no
2. no
3. no
4. yes

 

[Hitti-Litti]

1) No, the feel of hunger would overcome the pleasure.
2) No.
3) No, we would need to prevent the nutcases from killing themselves.
4) Yes, they'll get more pleasure in their life if they eat and sleep too, so they can wirehead longer.

 

[nivi]

1. No, some might, see drug users for reference
2. No.
3. Yes.
4. No.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

1) No, the feel of hunger would overcome the pleasure.

Why do you believe this to be the case? The rats were quite literally happy to starve to death.

 

[Fifty]

Why do you believe this to be the case? The rats were quite literally happy to starve to death.

Humans are smarter than rats.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

An average person knows that he has to eat, thus he knows that he has to eat when he starts feeling weak. Also an average person knows that he gets pleasure from eating when really hungry.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

I remember I saw on TV that some scientists gave monkeys in a lab a choice every day: food or heroin doses, and the monkeys chose the drugs over food to the point of starvation. Sounds just like this.

 

[ArneHD]

Self control is apparently difficult to exert when under the influence of a drug, natural or artificial.

So:
1: Yes
2: Probably/maybe
3: No, as in, he does not have the right, or at the very least; I would intervene.
4: Yes

 

[Erik Mesoy]

An average person knows that he has to eat, thus he knows that he has to eat when he starts feeling weak. Also an average person knows that he gets pleasure from eating when really hungry.

1) "Just a little more... just a little more..."
2) Unlike pleasure from eating, pleasure from wireheading never gets old or repetitive.
3) Where does this "knowledge" come from? What's the reasoning behind it? I imagine that the reasoning could get trumped by wireheading.

 

[Hitti-Litti]

1) "Wow, I can't stand on my legs anymore, I have to eat"
2) Pleasure from eating isn't repetitive if you do it so rarely.
3) Humans are smart enough to know things like that. Also humans learn by experiencing stuff, experiences can be something like "I'm really hungry, this is not nice".

 

[Benefactor]

1. Don't Know, Probably.
2. Don't Know, Probably.
3. Yes
4. Yes

Human brains work through chemicals and stimulation just like a rat's brain, on an admittedly bigger scale.

 

[nc-1701]

This is exactly the same as extremely addictive drugs, taken to there greatest extreme. Despite my general support of legalized drugs I don't support this for the same reasons I think that really hard drugs (like Heroin) should be banned.

 

[LightFang]

1) Do you think the average person would wirehead themselves to death, given the opportunity? Yes.
2) Do you think you would wirehead yourself to death, given the opportunity? I'd like to think not, but I probably would.
3) Do you think that a normal person should be allowed, legally speaking, to wirehead themselves to death? (If you want to go "can't prevent it", turn the question around and ask: Do you think there should be a legal right to interrupt someone else from wireheading themselves to death to ask them to reconsider?) No.
4) Do you think that you should, morally speaking, intervene if someone is wireheading themselves to death? Yes.

 

[Abaddon]

I hope they wire my up once my body begins to fail me.

Thus I offer myself to be the first human guinea pig!

 

[Shadylookin]

1) Do you think the average person would wirehead themselves to death, given the opportunity?

likely not. There are drugs that induce euphoria and yet the average person is not addicted to them

2) Do you think you would wirehead yourself to death, given the opportunity?

probably not since I haven't inhaled, snorted, injected, or ingested myself to death yet either. Plus I wouldn't be a big fan of having wire's sticking out of my head and into my brain.

3) Do you think that a normal person should be allowed, legally speaking, to wirehead themselves to death? (If you want to go "can't prevent it", turn the question around and ask: Do you think there should be a legal right to interrupt someone else from wireheading themselves to death to ask them to reconsider?)

I think someone should be able to wirehead themselves to death if they want

4) Do you think that you should, morally speaking, intervene if someone is wireheading themselves to death?

if I had a friend or relative that was using it then yes I would try and get them to stop, but I don't think this should be stopped by law or anything.

 

[lovett]

Humans are smarter than rats.

Getting something to eat is hardly a function of our higher level reasoning abilities.

I'd suggest the primal urge to feed oneself is just as strong in rats as in humans.

 

[Aramazd]

1)Yes.
2)While I hope not, probably.
3)No.
4)Yes.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Well, I suppose this would be my answer to all the recent "what would you do if you only had a short time to live" threads . . .

 

[CaveDweller]

The only possible way to prevent addiction and death from this would be never to start. Unlike chemical stimulation there would be no toxicity hence an absence of pleasure would be the limitation of the hangover. Would this absence translate to a feeling of total pleasurelessness? Would the brain change to block or reduce the pleasure receptors in the same way it does in chrystal meth users? If it does then the user will eventually become immune to all forms of pleasure and be driven to suicide. I'm pretty sure the starvation thing holds true because the wire would probably stimulate the same pleasure receptors that I switch on with pizza .