[ExI] state of conflict technology

[William Flynn Wallace]

Here is me  two packs a day of Salems, probably a strong cigarette.  I did
quit them cold turkey, after years of wanting to, but I'll bet you could
have measured some physiological changes in me during the days after I
quit. In other words, I did have a physical addiction.  I continued to want
cigarettes for a few weeks but did not relapse at all.  It is arguable to
my drinking a lot of coffee replaced the nicotine and so I had my dose of
stimulants.  No, I did not turn into a coffee addict, though I do support
the idea that there is such a thing.  Three cups at breakfast and no more.
Good for you they now say.

I took a big draw and inhaled a Salem ten years after I quit.  My thought?
"I could go back to two packs a day in a nanosecond."  Loved it.  But just
too deadly.  Did not want to die that way.  I suppose some idea of being
weak entered my mind and did not want to be thought of as weak by my
friends and family.  Ditto for alcohol.

So by John's measure, want to quit but can't, I wasn't an addict.  I think
I was, and had some withdrawal to prove it.  I cannot say what enabled me
to quit.  Many will say 'willpower', but that's an elusive concept if there
ever was one.  It's circular- you must have had enough willpower or you
would not have been able to quit.  If you can't, it's not enough will
power.  Nobody ever said how to get more.  Self-control is a better
concept, like the Mischel study I posted the other day.  Some would say
that if you haven't mastered self-control you are not yet an adult.  I
wonder what percentage that would be.

Cigarette smoking is probably stronger than heroin or at least as strong.
Meth too, probably more so though I have not looked at that data.

Re:  revealed preference.  I am glad to read the economics is finally
getting on the band wagon: relying first and foremost on behavior.  People
will say anything, especially to a health professional.  Kahneman helped
that too in economics

bill w

On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 12:07 PM John Clark via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 12:33 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> > It all depends on who gets to define addiction
>
>
> I think a good definition of addiction is wanting to stop doing something
> but being unable to force yourself to do so, by that definition cigarettes
> smoking is about as addictive as Heroin. 74% of smokers want to stop but
> each year only 6% actually manage to do so, do so and live that is, I'm not
> counting those who stopped smoking because they died.
>
>  John K Clark
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20200110/d23cf9f6/attachment.htm>