[extropy-chat] >H pleasure (was: MOVIE: "The Singularity")

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk.bruere at gmail.com> wrote:
> A much more plausible doomsday scenario is all the postHumans setting
> the
> pleasure centre inputs to 100% and vegetating forver.

True.  But there is the problem that biological pleasure centers (and
possibly arguably even digital ones, especially if uploading proves to
be the most viable way to get AIs) seem to experience pleasure as a
relative degree, rather than an absolute.  That is, there are + and -
levels, not 100% and 0%.  People who experience a lot of +, tend to
find their set points going up, thus they need more + to feel as good.
This has been classically studied in drugs, and also seems to be the
case with "natural" highs such as athletics and sex.  (I wonder if
there have been many studies about this for primarily non-chemical
pleasures, such as video games?)  Likewise, one who experiences a lot
of - will find their set points going down.

If it turns out that this is a fundamental property of sentience as we
know it, then we would not need to worry about post-Singularity
intelligences altering it any more than we would need to worry about
them altering the speed of light.  (Of course, in either case, they
might possibly find hacks around it to generate similar effects, for
instance finding out how to manufacture wormholes.  But this would at
least not be an immediate concern.)

Which is not to say it won't be a problem.  I recall Natasha's
description, from several years ago, of telepathic intimacy.  Things
like that, while not absolute, could well prov to be powerful enough
addictions to essentially cause many to vegetate for long enough
periods as to cause near-term resource shortages.  (Even a
self-replicating system needs a certain minimum resource base to
survive, especially if a large part of itself has ceased
self-replicating or doing any other productive labor yet still requires
support.)