> If we're talking about a dysfunctional reward pathway would it not stand to reason that someone's gravitation toward systems who provide thousands of small immediate rewards only reinforce this dysfunction?
This makes perfect sense to me.
But in the longest term, what actually /is/ the point? What is the reward that people are supposed to be pursuing /instead/ of video games, porn, and Instagram? We cannot pursue long-term goals if we don't have any. Where do they come from, those goals, that purpose?
> I feel kind of gross typing that out because it feels like some sort of appeal to nature but I can't shake it.
I wonder what you mean by this.
The apparent grossness of appeals to nature must stem from the fact that they have been used to justify injustice. But every form of argument is used to justify injustice -- so I don't think we should pre-emptively cut away our mind's ability to think naturalistic thoughts, just to avoid error. Maybe we have ignored Mother Nature for too long.
This brings me back to the original question, about purpose. Maybe it comes from Nature. Maybe a failure to enthusiastically perform for society means that the menu of options offered by that society contains nothing compatible with what Nature actually wants for us.
Porn is the best example. Why is it bad? What real thing is it simulating? What should you be doing instead?
Video games are similar: What real thing is being simulated?
You mention the development of competencies as an alternative. I agree that this is better. But what purpose of Nature's is served by the development of skills?
The feeling I can't shake is that addiction is the substitution of the simulated for the real, that increasingly everything is simulated, that the thing we are being distracted from is our own biological reality, and that we are, again artificially, trying to hack our own reward systems to be satisfied with goals that our not in our own Natures.
This makes perfect sense to me.
But in the longest term, what actually /is/ the point? What is the reward that people are supposed to be pursuing /instead/ of video games, porn, and Instagram? We cannot pursue long-term goals if we don't have any. Where do they come from, those goals, that purpose?
> I feel kind of gross typing that out because it feels like some sort of appeal to nature but I can't shake it.
I wonder what you mean by this.
The apparent grossness of appeals to nature must stem from the fact that they have been used to justify injustice. But every form of argument is used to justify injustice -- so I don't think we should pre-emptively cut away our mind's ability to think naturalistic thoughts, just to avoid error. Maybe we have ignored Mother Nature for too long.
This brings me back to the original question, about purpose. Maybe it comes from Nature. Maybe a failure to enthusiastically perform for society means that the menu of options offered by that society contains nothing compatible with what Nature actually wants for us.
Porn is the best example. Why is it bad? What real thing is it simulating? What should you be doing instead?
Video games are similar: What real thing is being simulated?
You mention the development of competencies as an alternative. I agree that this is better. But what purpose of Nature's is served by the development of skills?
The feeling I can't shake is that addiction is the substitution of the simulated for the real, that increasingly everything is simulated, that the thing we are being distracted from is our own biological reality, and that we are, again artificially, trying to hack our own reward systems to be satisfied with goals that our not in our own Natures.