For research on human happiness that really does a great job of presenting non-intuitive results in a compelling fashion, I recommend Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness.
For a great book in a lot of ways, I recommend Robert Frank’s “Darwin Economy.” I read this because in his interview on Russ Robert’s “Econtalk” podcast, Robert Frank made the claim that 100 years from now Darwin will be recognized as the greatest economist.
Some of their points relevant to wireheading: happiness seems mostly relative, relative to where you were recently. In engineering/physics terms, I think of it as there is no DC term, if you attach to something pleasure producing (whether wirehead, or just plain head) it is delicious, and delicious for a while, but even if you don’t stay attached long enough to have it just be OK, its deliciousness declines back towards the middle.
For research on human happiness that really does a great job of presenting non-intuitive results in a compelling fashion, I recommend Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness.
For a great book in a lot of ways, I recommend Robert Frank’s “Darwin Economy.” I read this because in his interview on Russ Robert’s “Econtalk” podcast, Robert Frank made the claim that 100 years from now Darwin will be recognized as the greatest economist.
Some of their points relevant to wireheading: happiness seems mostly relative, relative to where you were recently. In engineering/physics terms, I think of it as there is no DC term, if you attach to something pleasure producing (whether wirehead, or just plain head) it is delicious, and delicious for a while, but even if you don’t stay attached long enough to have it just be OK, its deliciousness declines back towards the middle.