On 4/26/2015 4:59 PM, John Clark wrote:
I wonder how a intelligent conscious being would react if it had full access to its
emotional control panel. Regardless of how well our life is going who among us would for
eternity opt out of becoming just a little bit happier if all it took was turning a
knob? And after you turn it a little bit and see how much better you feel why not turn
it again, perhaps a little more this time. Maybe drug addiction is the first signs of
that very dangerous positive feedback loop. During most of human existence this was a
non-issue but then about 8000 BC alcoholic beverages were invented, but they were so
dilute you'd really have to work at it to get into trouble. Then about 500 years ago
distilled alcoholic beverages were invented and it became much easier to become a
alcoholic. Today we have many drugs that are far more powerful than alcohol. What
happens if this trend continues exponentially?
> Perhaps at some level of intelligence other things become more important
than
consuming more and more energy
Perhaps a eternal orgasm will become more important than consuming more and more energy,
and more important than anything else, and more important than everything else put
together. Perhaps the world does't end in a bang or a whimper but a groan of mindless
pleasure.
That implicitly assumes that pleasure is one-dimensional. One nice thing about orgasms,
like most pleasures, is that they are satiating. Having a multi-dimensional pleasure
space might almost define intelligence.
Brent
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
