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jadedog  ·  2866 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Brain Activity Could Be Nudged To Make Healthier Choices

Interesting link about the fermented fruit, but I don't think the theory needs to be that attenuated. People can get addicted to anything pleasurable really quickly. Just about anything that is linked to pleasure can be addictive. Neurons that fire together wire together. In other words, anything or any activity that triggers a pleasurable response in the brain links the pleasurable feeling with the activity or object.

There were a couple assumptions in your theory. The most important one is that people have to be willing to get the treatment. That's the worrisome part.

As you say, alcoholism can destroy people's lives, their own and often the people's lives around them. One day, if the technology works, then people could be forced to undergo treatment.

This next part is a bit of a stretch because it's a sensitive topic, but there was a time when homosexuality was seen a bit like alcoholism. It was seen as something that ruined people's lives and the lives of people around them, so people were forced into treatment. Alan Turing, often considered the father of computing, was chemically castrated against his wishes as an alternative to prison as a "cure" for his homosexuality.

It might not seem analogous since you may not see any redeeming qualities to alcoholism, but that might lead to other addictions being "treated". Is that too far out of the realm of possibility to approach the likelihood of transporting through black holes? I would disagree.