interesting link on addiction

[neophyte]

http://www.hencewise.com/addiction/

I found this a good read, its about addiction, models of addition and explains what happens in the brain, its a light read.

[Spiritfree]

Neo -this really is a great read in my opinion. I need one of those remote control devices.
The author's take on addiction is fascinating, to say the least.

[neophyte]

When i saw the remote i thought the same thing, reminds me of Soma in brave new world.

[Spiritfree]

When i saw the remote i thought the same thing, reminds me of Soma in brave new world.

Now I want some Soma -lol.

[neophyte]

funny thing is, there is actually a drug which has the brand name soma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carisoprodol though its certinaly not the same thing, i wonder if it was a clever marketing tacticing by the firm or if the book copied the name.

[StuckinLA]

Everyone reads _A Brave New World_ as dystopic. But I ask you, in all seriousness, what would be so bad about a safe, euphoric drug and constant no-strings orgies?

Oh we'd lose our precious individual unique snowflakeness and be uncritical slaves to those in power.

Yeah, but those in power are giving us safe euphoric drugs and nonstop orgies. I would probably be ok with that.

[Spiritfree]

In the article posted by NEO:

"Addiction is easiest to understand when you realise that every person has some problems, some neuroses, and some damage, lightly-hidden behind their eyes. We are all a bit broken, bless us. We just can’t easily see the health issues in each other’s heads.

Indeed, it seems basically impossible, or exceedingly rare, for someone to be thrown into the world, swim through a family, a school, a culture, and a puberty of varying cruelty, then emerge as an adult totally dry on the other side. Nuh-uh. The odds are stacked extraordinarily against any of us coming out of something as insane as a childhood as a fully, totally ‘normal’ human being, completely well-adjusted in every respect to a very weird world (if such a thing were even possible.) We develop our odd little human problems, bundled up into a semi-functional personality.

However, let’s face it, we definitely don’t all get an equal share of the potential damage that’s getting doled out. Parenting is a game that has novices, rookies, pros, and people who probably shouldn’t even be allowed to play at all. Let’s briefly imagine a spectrum, with Joseph Fritzl and his wife-daughter-combo on one end, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on the other. You were born to parents somewhere on that parenting continuum. No one gets to choose their parents, their bodies, their gender, their sexuality, their DNA. It’s all the luck of the draw, life’s most significant and indifferent lottery, and we all only get the one hand we’ve been dealt."

(2) "The alcoholic is suffering, and some clumsy brand of cheap relief is available to him in every tavern in town.

From a medical point of view, drugs, alcohol and any other escapist compulsions generally remain pretty un-ideal forms of self-help for psychological problems, since they are treating symptoms, not preventing them. To psychologists, they’re numbing the pain of the toothache, but ignoring the rotten tooth. Our alcoholic treats the pain, but then the anaesthetic wears off, to be replaced by a hangover. As the same-old problems come back, so must the solution – the alcoholic re-doses. Click, click, click. The actual character of their sober life is the problem they are trying to solve — and so the alcohol will remains a necessary crutch unless/until it somehow improves. If our hapless self-medicating drunk accidentally stumbled in to a therapist’s office or a healthy relationship or a more rewarding job or a yoga class or a dojo instead of the pub, pub, pub, it’s not hard to imagine that some competing desires might start – at last – to win out.

In the meantime, for the lowly price of five bucks a hit, one can fix him or herself for the night."

[neophyte]

speaking of seeing brave new world as dystopic, i agree, it think it actually sounds kinda awesome.

one thing i'm really interested in, and a future we are probably heading to which may be brave new world or the death of humanity or potentially heaven on earth, for all humanity, have a read of this

The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence
part 1

second part will blow your mind, well at least it did for me
part 2

I've talked about this to everyone i know, no one seems that interested, AI research is something i keep a keen eye on. in 20 years time we may not even recognise the world we live in.

Even though this has nothing to do with addiction, perhaps it does as paraphrasing a quote from Alan Turing (father of computing). Once we create a machine that thinks like we do, we never need to create another invention. So any drug, any device that can be invented will be available to us, almost all at once. It's often referred to as the technological singularity.

That or the robots will just kill us all :P

I often tell my friends when i bring this subject up, and bore everyone, the human brain is the most complex device we know of in the universe, there isn't a supercomputer that can match its number of computations. A super computer fills an entire room and requires a power plant to run. the human brain runs on 20 watts of power. there's really no reason why that couldn't be turned into something synthetic, computer memory does not degrade, human synapses only travel at 8ms. I could go on.

just have a read of the articles

[Guitarista]

Well written articles. Thanks Neo.

[Spiritfree]

speaking of seeing brave new world as dystopic, i agree, it think it actually sounds kinda awesome.
one thing i'm really interested in, and a future we are probably heading to which may be brave new world or the death of humanity or potentially heaven on earth, for all humanity, have a read of this:
The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence
part 1

second part will blow your mind, well at least it did for me
part 2

Neo -thanks for the article links. A whole lot of truism contained therein.

The really funny part of the entire "what's happening now" technology scene is the fact that we humans are just now getting back close to where we were when we were dropped off here several thousand years ago. I do not know if we were dropped off on earth or that our space/air craft crashed here and it really does not matter. The fact is that we are regaining our former technology at light speed now and the future looks to be an awesome experience.

(OK, call the white jackets)

--sf--


Edit: Watch alcohol sales continue to soar as we keep moving forward at such a rapid pace. Just a thought.

[neophyte]

The case of evolution is pretty solid, any former technology would have been uncovered by now via archaeology, this is crazy even for you Spirit I was a big UFO buff in my 20s, still kinda am, there are a lot of good sightings with evidence that are difficult to debunk this one of many https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_UFO_wave

I have a theory that aliens may have visited here long ago and left sensors, once we reached a certain level of civilisation they would come back to observe what was happening. I believe setting off the first nuclear weapons could have done this. or perhaps im just as crazy as you, maybe it just goes hand in hand with being an alcoholic :P

[StuckinLA]

The 'we are all going to die anyway' thing is precisely what - paradoxically - screws with me the most about the (very real) possibility of human extinction. Why are we here? To comfort one another while we are here, and to leave a (written) legacy for the next generations. So they know they, too, are not alone.

Or as Walt Whitman said: "That the powerful play goes on/ and you may contribute a verse."

[treetops]

Stuck - Get thee to an Existentialist !! (maybe not, they seemed to have been fond of too much vino)

[Ne/Neva Eva]

You and I are not important, but we are no more or less important than anyone else. Staying drunk is a semisuicide, you are sulking and refusing to play....but the ride doesn't care.

Really profound stuff in your post, Kuya. But I particularly appreciate the sentences I've quoted. Duly noted and something to think about before picking up the bottle...



The ride doesn't care and I don't want to refuse to play and to try to enjoy the ride when it is, in fact, enjoyable.



Thanks.

[Spiritfree]

The case of evolution is pretty solid, any former technology would have been uncovered by now via archaeology, this is crazy even for you Spirit I was a big UFO buff in my 20s, still kinda am, there are a lot of good sightings with evidence that are difficult to debunk this one of many https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_UFO_wave
I have a theory that aliens may have visited here long ago and left sensors, once we reached a certain level of civilisation they would come back to observe what was happening. I believe setting off the first nuclear weapons could have done this. or perhaps im just as crazy as you, maybe it just goes hand in hand with being an alcoholic :P

Neo -I truly do not think that a lot of our so called "crazy" thoughts are truly that crazy -at least to us they are not -at first and until others tell us how abnormal our thoughts are. Thinking outside of the norm or "box" can be or become very challenging because we sometimes listen to others tell us how ridiculous our thoughts and ideas are. For me, and maybe just a few others, alcohol helped me to be ok with my non-normal thoughts and would also help me to stop thinking outside of the norm "box".

There are at least five distinct races of human "beings" on our planet with differing genetic markers. If evolution could really be 'real' then it has as far of a challenge to go as religions (ok, well maybe not that far). Anyway, it is all fun to talk about in my opinion. One thing is for certain though; if you carry the genetic marker for alcoholism, you may one day find yourself an alcoholic -lol, but true.