I suppose it might end up being treated like sex. Having one’s button publicly visible is “indecent”—buttons are only pushed in private.
The analogy to sex is rough. From a historical and evolutionary perspective, sex is treated the way it is because it leads to gene replication and parenthood, not because it leads to pleasure. The lack of side effects from the buttons makes them more comparable to rubbing someone’s back, smiling, or saying something nice to someone.
OK—well that’s one possibility. But in discussing either of these analogies, aren’t we just showing (a) that the pleasure-button scenario is underdetermined, because there are many different kinds of pleasure and (b) that it’s redundant, because people can actually give each other pats on the back, or hand-jobs or whatever.
The analogy to sex is rough. From a historical and evolutionary perspective, sex is treated the way it is because it leads to gene replication and parenthood, not because it leads to pleasure. The lack of side effects from the buttons makes them more comparable to rubbing someone’s back, smiling, or saying something nice to someone.
OK—well that’s one possibility. But in discussing either of these analogies, aren’t we just showing (a) that the pleasure-button scenario is underdetermined, because there are many different kinds of pleasure and (b) that it’s redundant, because people can actually give each other pats on the back, or hand-jobs or whatever.