Pleasure addiction via brain-manipulating technologies as a possible contributor to civilizational decline

Abstract

Advances in new technologies create new ways to stimulate the pleasure center of the human brain: via new chemicals, direct application of electricity, electromagnetic fields, “reward hacking” in games, chat-bots and social networks, and, in the future, possibly via genetic manipulation, nanorobots and AI systems. This may have two consequences: a) human life may become more interesting, b) humans may stop participating in any external activities, including work, maintenance, reproduction, and even caring for their own health (potentially even harming themselves), which could contribute to a slow decline of the human population. Technological pleasure inducement, also known as “wireheading”, is not self-limiting and it may push the addict to his/her limits and ultimately result in life-threatening behavior. Mass unemployment and the provision of basic income would likely feed the industry of pleasures. Do-it-yourself (DIY) synthetic biology and computers may create the possibility of home production of very addictive drugs through various routes, like insertion of a morphine-producing gene in plants or stimulation of the brain via electromagnetic fields, which may not be possible to control by limiting the supply chain. Brain implant technologies like Neuralink open a route to widespread pleasure inducement. If “wireheading knowledge” becomes freely available, it could create a reward-hacking epidemic larger than the current U.S. opioid crisis and possibly contribute to a global civilizational decline.