[extropy-chat] Draft Paper on Boredom and Superlongevity

[Anders Sandberg]

Charlie Stross wrote:
> Let's go one step further:
>
> Is boredom a neurological illness, like endogenous depression?

There can certainly be pathological boredom - ennui, acedia, the whole
range of almost-but-not-quite-depression-like states. And there are links
to the serotonin system: when performing a physical task there is evidence
that we get not just peripheral fatigue (acidosis in the muscles, depleted
blood nutrients etc) but also some form of central fatigue that inhibits
our will to do more. This effect can be modified (in rats) by changing
serotonin levels. I wouldn't be too surprised if we can get central
fatigue from purely mental tasks, and that some people suffer from too
short boredom time constants.

In the literature boredom is often seen as a marker for other
psychopathology:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12868294&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum
and there are various psychological measurement scales for it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14992349&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_DocSum
Factor analysis seems to suggest that there are two factors, a lack of
internal or external stimulation:
http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327752jpa8503_05

I think boredom is an indicator of a lack of experience of meaning. This
can be very helpful by directing us away from fruitless tasks, but we can
of course suffer it when we fail to see a real meaning or when we get
important tasks whose meaning doesn't fit our intuitive sense of meaning.
Maybe we will become less bored with many tasks if we get smarter by
finding meaning where previously we saw none, but at the same time react
more strongly to what we had previously thought was important.


By the way, I found this little gem:

http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/171/12/1443
"Incidence of and risk factors for nodding off at scientific sessions"
and its sequel
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/173/12/1502
"Nodding and napping in medical lectures: an instructive systematic review"

"Chronic tweed wearing, however, might indicate a boring phenotype, or it
might be causal: tweed may harbour little insect-like creatures whose
dander could cause asthma and chronic hypoxemia, with subsequent cerebral
dysfunction."



-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University