I see a possible risk that maybe we are misinterpreting the qualia of wireheading. What if it doesn’t make you happy, doesn’t stop the pain, only makes you extremely desire to “push the button more” while feeling exactly as much pain as before.
I guess we could test it by turning it off after a while, and asking the patient. But what if at that moment, the patient’s brain is already reprogrammed to “tell them anything that seems like to let me push the button again”? So we would need to make sure that there is no correct answer, that in the name of science we are not going to connect the button for this specific patient again, no matter what. Which sounds like extra torture, possibly...
I see a possible risk that maybe we are misinterpreting the qualia of wireheading. What if it doesn’t make you happy, doesn’t stop the pain, only makes you extremely desire to “push the button more” while feeling exactly as much pain as before.
I guess we could test it by turning it off after a while, and asking the patient. But what if at that moment, the patient’s brain is already reprogrammed to “tell them anything that seems like to let me push the button again”? So we would need to make sure that there is no correct answer, that in the name of science we are not going to connect the button for this specific patient again, no matter what. Which sounds like extra torture, possibly...