Drugs, Hedonism and Genetic Reverse Engineering

[JGeropoulas]

There are certainly no shortage of neurons firing in these authors' brains. But, as bright as they seem to be, I doubt they realize the full import of their visionary proposals, which seem to amount to attempts to "fix" what 4D "broke" when they hacked into our DNA and programmed us for misery to fuel their negative-energy fuel cell (i.e. Earth's Human Race).

With this perspective in mind, it's very interesting to read what these thinkers have to say philosophically -- as well as pharmacologically, regarding optimal personal health and well-being. Note that their view of "happiness" isn't the "mindless" automaton version associated with today's "television viewing audience."

See what you think. Here are some excerpts and related links (emphasis is mine). Don't miss the witty pic near the end:

...Looking ahead, this century's mood-boosting, intellect-sharpening, empathy-enhancing and personality-enriching drugs are themselves likely to prove only stopgaps...Taking drugs to repair Nature's deficiencies may eventually become redundant.

...But in repairing the deficiencies of an educational system geared to producing dysthymic pharmacological illiterates, Smart Drugs 1 and 2 offers a warmly welcome start.

...In the meantime, bitter experience of the hedonic treadmill of Darwinian life instills a reluctance to believe anything so magical as an MDMA-like experience could be sustained and enriched indefinitely ("You can't have the sweet without the sour"; "You need pain to appreciate pleasure", etc.)

...As intracranial self-stimulation studies attest, pure pleasure induced by electrical stimulation of the ancient mesolimbic pleasure centres of the brain shows no tolerance. In the present era, depression, self-ignorance and sociopathy are demonstrably sustainable over a lifetime; but so, in theory, are the biochemical substrates of happiness, lucid self-insight and even saintly empathetic bliss.

...The hedonic treadmill can be dismantled, its inhibitory feedback mechanisms redesigned, and its neurogenetics rewritten. In principle, and perhaps one day in practice, we can be nicer, happier and smarter indefinitely.

A review of "Smart Drugs - The Next Generation"
-http://www.nootropics.com/index.html

...If the quality of our lives is to be significantly enhanced in the long term, then the genetically predisposed set-point of our emotional thermostats needs to be recalibrated. The malaise-ridden norm typically adaptive in humanity's ancestral environment must be scrapped.

...Extracting reliable information on this topic is extraordinarily difficult for laity and professionals alike. The layman is more likely to be given heavily slanted propaganda. Unvarnished fact might confuse his supposedly uneducated and functionally diminutive brain.

...Career-scientists, on the other hand, are bedevilled by a different problem. Access to funds, laboratories, raw materials, journal publication, professional preferment, and licenses to conduct experimental trials is all dependent on researchers delivering results their paymasters want to hear. The disincentives to intellectual integrity could scarcely be greater; and they are cloaked in such reputable disguise.

"The Responsible Parents' Guide to Healthy Mood-Boosters For All The Family"
-http://www.biopsychiatry.com/

Also, as seems to be typical of enlightened people, these writers display that sardonic wit (exemplified so well by "V" in "V for Vendetta"). Here's an example taken from their discussion of a deprenyl, a drug with many benefits, including smoking cessation:

...For in low doses, deprenyl enhances life-expectancy...drive, libido and motivation; sharpens cognitive performance both subjectively and on a range of objective tests; serves as a useful adjunct in the palliative treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; and makes you feel good too...Deprenyl isn't addictive, which probably reflects its different delivery-mechanism and delayed reward compared to inhaled tobacco smoke.

...Now whether the Government would welcome the billions of dollars of lost (tobacco tax) revenue and a (longer-living) population of energetic non-taxpayers (benefitting from deprenyl) is unclear. ;)

"The Responsible Parents' Guide to Healthy Mood-Boosters For All The Family"
-http://www.biopsychiatry.com/

...the "hedonic treadmill" ensures that very few of us can be very happy for very long. An interplay of cruelly effective negative feedback mechanisms is at work in the central nervous system. Feedback-inhibition ensures that a majority of people would be periodically bored, depressed or angst-ridden...(even in the) Garden of Eden.

...the inclusive fitness of our genes has been served by the "natural" manufacture of some of the most vicious psychological adaptations imaginable...Everyday emotional pain is part of "what makes us human"...The need for "character-building" emotional pain gets justified with all manner of sophistries, both religious and profane. Suffering is good for you, one may be told. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.

...if one were purposely building an intelligent robotic...machine, then endowing it with the illusion of free-will would prove a highly fitness-enhancing adaptation.

...Fortunately,...humanity will be able to
outwit its ancient genetic masters.

"The Hedonistic Imperative" - Introduction
-http://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/hedon1.htm#sabotage

(see also, the Table of Contents: -http://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/tabconhi.htm )

 

[Jimbo]

Have you personally tested these out? And also, have you 'background checked' to make sure this isn't COINTELPRO/disinformation?

 

[Jimbo]

A description of the author of the above writings can be found on wikipedia Here
The jist though is this;

David Pearce is a British philosopher and negative utilitarian. He promotes the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His book-length internet manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative[1] details how he believes the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through "paradise engineering". A transhumanist vegan, Pearce also calls for the elimination of cruelty to animals. Among his websites, there are many devoted to the plight of animals.

In The Hedonistic Imperative, Pearce outlines how technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, pharmacology, and neurosurgery could potentially converge to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience in human life and produce a posthuman civilization.

I don't know much about The Work since I am very new to the forum, however, it seems to me that his views are based off of an 'early edition' new-age philosophy.

 

[Jimbo]

Also, it is especiall pushed on -http://www.biopsychiatry.com that all the illegal substances are somewhat good cognitive enhancers with non-serious/non-permanent/easily correctable side effects, which demonizing tobacco and alcohol as being 'the real killers' or something to that effect. And the diet advice it seems to give is that a low-fat mostly vegetarian diet is the best for your brain. This may be true for some cases, but realistically and in most cases, it is the opposite.