[ExI] The Problem with Drugs (was Re: kepler study says 8.8e9 earthlike planets)

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 11:26 AM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 3:51 PM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Now, I know John was referring to illegal drugs
>>
>
> Actually I was referring to something much more general than chemicals,
> legal or illegal.
>

Sorry if I mischaracterized what you were saying, thanks for the
clarification.


> I'd like to know if it is in the very nature of intelligent minds that if
> they have complete access to their emotional control panel they won't be
> motivated to do anything except move the happiness, pleasure, and pride in
> a job well done knob to a higher setting.  If Einstein could have felt just
> as good as he did on the day he discovered General Relativity just by
> turning a knob would he have bothered to spend eleven grueling years to
> actually discover it? It's this sort of positive feedback that worries me.
>

There are a number of studies of mammals out there that indicate that if
they have direct access to their pleasure centers, that they indeed forego
eating, sleeping, etc. to poke their pleasure centers again. While no
official human studies of this nature exist to my knowledge (and there
would be reason to believe they would not be for ethical reasons), there
are the unofficial studies we call addiction.

So my answer is that no, Einstein would NOT have discovered General
Relativity if he were addicted to immediate pleasure. The ability to have
delayed gratification, and suffer for greater gratification later is one of
the key predictors of human success.

Here is a great talk on this subject.
http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html

Apologies in advance to the videophobes.

-Kelly
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