I am not sure I understand what you mean by “actual entertainment.”
I have been in situations where I realized that this thing that I’ve been doing, ostensibly for entertainment purposes, is no longer entertaining and has not been for some time. For example, I’ve been playing a video game but haven’t actually been enjoying it for a while.
That’s more or less the referent I have for something not being actual entertainment, while still being sufficiently entertainment-like to deserve the label. (Dropping an anvil on my foot is also not actual entertainment, but it would be very strange to describe it that way.)
I’ve never wireheaded, but given my understanding of the idea I would call it actual entertainment. Whether it’s a rational thing to do or not is a whole other question: that depends on its costs (including long-term opportunity costs).
It seems very strange to me that my judgment of whether Sam actually enjoys buying a lottery ticket should depend on whether there are cheaper entertainments available. Ditto going to the opera. I would agree that doing either when there are other things with lower costs that Sam enjoys more is imperfectly rational, but I would say that whether Sam actually enjoys them or not doesn’t depend on that.
The “talking-about” test seems odd to me… there are many activities I enjoy that I don’t necessarily enjoy talking about. Are you claiming that I therefore don’t actually enjoy the activities, I just think I do?
(I’m also not sure why you think Sam won’t enjoy talking about buying lottery tickets, necessarily, though I agree that it seems plausible that Sam would not.)
I am having a hard time coming up with a scenario in which a sharp, large decrease in my standard of living makes wireheading a more sensible thing for me to do.
I do sympathize with the urge to do it even if it isn’t sensible—ditto the urge to drink habitually, have unprotected sex with strangers, faff about on the Internet while at work, or shoot myself in the head—but I can’t quite grasp that as a long-term plan, either.
I am not sure I understand what you mean by “actual entertainment.”
I have been in situations where I realized that this thing that I’ve been doing, ostensibly for entertainment purposes, is no longer entertaining and has not been for some time. For example, I’ve been playing a video game but haven’t actually been enjoying it for a while.
That’s more or less the referent I have for something not being actual entertainment, while still being sufficiently entertainment-like to deserve the label. (Dropping an anvil on my foot is also not actual entertainment, but it would be very strange to describe it that way.)
I’ve never wireheaded, but given my understanding of the idea I would call it actual entertainment. Whether it’s a rational thing to do or not is a whole other question: that depends on its costs (including long-term opportunity costs).
It seems very strange to me that my judgment of whether Sam actually enjoys buying a lottery ticket should depend on whether there are cheaper entertainments available. Ditto going to the opera. I would agree that doing either when there are other things with lower costs that Sam enjoys more is imperfectly rational, but I would say that whether Sam actually enjoys them or not doesn’t depend on that.
The “talking-about” test seems odd to me… there are many activities I enjoy that I don’t necessarily enjoy talking about. Are you claiming that I therefore don’t actually enjoy the activities, I just think I do?
(I’m also not sure why you think Sam won’t enjoy talking about buying lottery tickets, necessarily, though I agree that it seems plausible that Sam would not.)
one of my motivations for accumulating resources is the ability to wirehead myself if things look to be going down the drain.
Can you expand on what you mean by “things go down the drain,” here?
sharp, large decrease in standard of living.
I am having a hard time coming up with a scenario in which a sharp, large decrease in my standard of living makes wireheading a more sensible thing for me to do.
I do sympathize with the urge to do it even if it isn’t sensible—ditto the urge to drink habitually, have unprotected sex with strangers, faff about on the Internet while at work, or shoot myself in the head—but I can’t quite grasp that as a long-term plan, either.