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Wireheading
Wireheading refers to the practice of artificially stimulating the brain's reward centers, typically through electrical currents, to induce intense pleasure. This concept is often explored in thought experiments and laboratory settings, where direct stimulation leads to feelings of happiness or euphoria. However, wireheading can also refer more broadly to methods that produce counterfeit utility by maximizing pleasurable experiences without contributing to long-term value or fulfillment. While it may offer immediate gratification, wireheading is criticized for potentially undermining meaningful experiences such as love, creativity, and personal growth. The concept raises ethical concerns, especially in relation to artificial intelligence and human well-being. Research Self-stimulation in animals In 1953, Harvard psychologist James Olds discovered the brain's "pleasure centers" through an experiment where rats compulsively stimulated their brains by pulling a lever, achieving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedonic Treadmill
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness (or sadness) despite major positive or negative events or life changes. According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell coined the term in their essay "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971). The hedonic treadmill viewpoint suggests that wealth does not increase the level of happiness. Overview Hedonic adaptation is an event or mechanism that reduces the affective impact of substantial emotional events. Generally, hedonic adaptation involves a happiness "set point", whereby humans generally maintain a constant level of happiness throughout their lives, despite events that occur in their environment. The process of hedonic adaptation is often conceptualized as a treadmill, sinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wirehead (science Fiction)
In science fiction, wireheading is a term associated with fictional or futuristic applications of brain stimulation reward, the act of directly triggering the brain's reward center by electrical stimulation of an inserted wire, for the purpose of 'short-circuiting' the brain's normal reward process and artificially inducing pleasure. Scientists have successfully performed brain stimulation reward on rats (1950s) and humans (1960s). This stimulation does not appear to lead to tolerance or satiation in the way that sex or drugs do. The term is sometimes associated with science fiction writer Larry Niven, who coined the term in his 1969 novella ''Death by Ecstasy'' (''Known Space'' series). In the philosophy of artificial intelligence, the term is used to refer to AI systems that hack their own reward channel. More broadly, the term can also refer to various kinds of interaction between human beings and technology. In fiction Literature Wireheading, like other forms of brain alter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eradication Of Suffering
The eradication of suffering or abolition of suffering is a proposed goal within biotechnology and ethics to eliminate involuntary pain and suffering in all sentient beings. The concept involves using advanced techniques in genetic engineering, neuroscience, and pharmacology to mitigate or prevent negative experiences, with the long-term aim of replacing suffering with states of well-being. It is associated with strands of transhumanism, negative utilitarianism, and animal welfare ethics that advocate for the use of science and technology to reduce or abolish suffering on a global or species-wide scale. Biology and medicine The discovery of modern anesthesia in the 19th century was an early breakthrough in the elimination of pain during surgery, but acceptance was not universal. Some medical practitioners at the time believed that anesthesia was an artificial and harmful intervention in the body's natural response to injury. Opposition to anesthesia has since dissipated; however ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Pearce (philosopher)
David Pearce (born April 1959) is a British transhumanist philosopher. He is the co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association, currently rebranded and incorporated as Humanity+. Pearce approaches ethical issues from a negative utilitarian perspective. Based in Brighton, England, Pearce maintains a series of websites devoted to transhumanist topics and what he calls the "hedonistic imperative", a moral obligation to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His self-published internet manifesto, ''The Hedonistic Imperative'' (1995), outlines how pharmacology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and neurosurgery could converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience from human and non-human life, replacing suffering with "information-sensitive gradients of bliss".Bostrom (2005) 15. Pearce call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleasure
Pleasure is experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals find pleasure enjoyable, positive or worthy of seeking. A great variety of activities may be experienced as pleasurable, like eating, having sex, listening to music or playing games. Pleasure is part of various other mental states such as ecstasy, euphoria and flow. Happiness and well-being are closely related to pleasure but not identical with it. There is no general agreement as to whether pleasure should be understood as a sensation, a quality of experiences, an attitude to experiences or otherwise. Pleasure plays a central role in the family of philosophical theories known as hedonism. Definition "Pleasure" refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. The term is primarily used in association with '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing properties of matter. This definition of nanotechnology includes all types of research and technologies that deal with these special properties. It is common to see the plural form "nanotechnologies" as well as "nanoscale technologies" to refer to research and applications whose common trait is scale. An earlier understanding of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of precisely manipulating atoms and molecules for fabricating macroscale products, now referred to as molecular nanotechnology. Nanotechnology defined by scale includes fields of science such as surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, energy storage, engineering, microfabrication, and molecular engineering. The associated rese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedonism
Hedonism is a family of Philosophy, philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is Motivation, motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of Psychological egoism, egoism, it suggests that people only help others if they expect a personal benefit. Axiological hedonism is the view that pleasure is the sole source of Intrinsic value (ethics), intrinsic value. It asserts that other things, like knowledge and money, only have value insofar as they produce pleasure and reduce pain. This view divides into quantitative hedonism, which only considers the intensity and duration of pleasures, and qualitative hedonism, which identifies quality as another relevant factor. The closely related position of prudential hedonism states that pleasure and pain are the only factors of well-being. Ethical hedonism applies axiological hedonism to morality, arguing that people have a moral obligation, moral dut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, and theologians. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the mind, and at other times, an aspect of it. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination, and volition (psychology), volition. Today, it often includes any kind of cognition, experience, feeling, or perception. It may be awareness, awareness of awareness, metacognition, or self-awareness, either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions, and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked. Examples of the range of descriptions, definitions or explanations are: ordered distinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neuroengineering
Neural engineering (also known as neuroengineering) is a discipline within biomedical engineering that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, or enhance neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs. Overview The field of neural engineering draws on the fields of computational neuroscience, experimental neuroscience, neurology, electrical engineering and signal processing of living neural tissue, and encompasses elements from robotics, cybernetics, computer engineering, neural tissue engineering, materials science, and nanotechnology. Prominent goals in the field include restoration and augmentation of human function via direct interactions between the nervous system and artificial devices. Much current research is focused on understanding the coding and processing of information in the sensory and motor systems, quantifying how this processing is alte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brain–computer Interface
A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication link between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often directed at researching, Brain mapping, mapping, assisting, Augmented cognition, augmenting, or repairing human Cognitive skill, cognitive or Sensory-motor coupling, sensory-motor functions. They are often conceptualized as a human–machine interface that skips the intermediary of moving body parts (e.g. hands or feet). BCI implementations range from non-invasive (EEG, Magnetoencephalography, MEG, MRI) and partially invasive (ECoG and endovascular) to invasive (microelectrode array), based on how physically close electrodes are to brain tissue. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s by Jacques Vidal at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by a contract from the Defense Adva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biohappiness
Biohappiness, or bio-happiness, is the elevation of well-being in humans and other animals through biological methods, including germline engineering through screening embryos with genes associated with a high level of happiness, or the use of drugs intended to raise baseline levels of happiness. The object is to facilitate the achievement of a state of "better than well". Proponents of biohappiness include the transhumanist philosopher David Pearce, whose goal is to end the suffering of all sentient beings and the Canadian ethicist Mark Alan Walker. Walker coined the term "bio-happiness" to describe the idea of directly manipulating the biological roots of happiness in order to increase it. He sought to defend it on the grounds that happiness ought to be of interest to a wide range of moral theorists; and that hyperthymia, a state of high baseline happiness, is associated with better outcomes in health and human achievement. Potential risks A significant danger of bio happine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brave New World
''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, '' Brave New World Revisited'' (1958), and with his final novel, ''Island'' (1962), the utopian counterpart. This novel is often compared as an inversion counterpart to George Orwell's '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949). In 1998 and 1999, the Modern Library ranked ''Brave New World'' at number 5 on its list of the 100 Best Novels in English of the 20th century. In 2003, Robert McCrum, writing for ''The Observer'', included ''Brave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
