From: Metaqualia (metaqualia@mynichi.com)
Date: Sat Jun 19 2004 - 22:55:10 MDT
> The nature of humans and other evolved creatures is that pleasurable
> feelings result from *getting* to the goal, not *having* the goal. It's
yes, that is why going for your goals gets you nowhere you have to push the
button instead.
> We can do this with electrical or chemical modification of brain
> operation. If you were to query that organism's state, it would respond
yes, but imperfectly and it's not socially accepted nor within the reach of
an individual or animals.
> that it is experiencing great pleasure. However, there would be no
> incentive to growth or sustainability, and the pleasure would be
> relatively short lived.
pleasure is not short lived, stimulation of pleasure is short lived for
evolutionary reasons. You can sustain pleasure indefinitely as wirehead mice
show.
> So, some would say, let us have constant pleasure, but let it be varying
> degrees of pleasure, such that we are motivated to interact with our
> friends, love others, and inspired to create. Well, then you would be
> right where you are now, with only a shift in viewpoint.
Sounds good to me, what about replace the pleasure/pain scale with a
pleasure/more pleasure scale. or with a pleasure1/pleasure2 scale.
There is a lot of variation between individuals as far as the basic level of
happiness is concerned. If you look at human beings who are mostly upbeat
and euphoric they do better in life than those who are always pissed off, on
the average, since they have better social skills.
mq
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