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

[rwac]

>
> > So my answer is that no, Einstein would NOT have discovered General
>> Relativity if he were addicted to immediate pleasure.
>>
>
> So my next question is could any mind avoid becoming addicted if it had
> complete unrestricted access to its own emotional control panel?
>

Well, opiates are the closest thing to the emotional control panel we have.
And the Rat Park experiment showed that "addicted" rats will de-addict
themselves given adequate stimulation in the environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

"Alexander built Rat Park, an 8.8 m2 (95 sq ft) housing colony, 200 times
the floor area of a standard laboratory cage. There were 16–20 rats of both
sexes in residence, an abundance of food, balls and wheels for play, and
enough space for mating and raising litters.[3]:166 The results of the
experiment appeared to support his hypothesis. Rats who had been forced to
consume morphine hydrochloride for 57 consecutive days were brought to Rat
Park and given a choice between plain tap water and water laced with
morphine. For the most part, they chose the plain water. "Nothing that we
tried," Alexander wrote, "... produced anything that looked like addiction
in rats that were housed in a reasonably normal environment."[1] Control
groups of rats isolated in small cages consumed much more morphine in this
and several subsequent experiments."

Kiran
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