The pleasure machine. Would you plug in?

The people bringing up the practical issues of this thought experiment are missing the point, and that's assuming those considerations are valid in the first place. Mice given access to a button that provides a direct dopamine shot to the brain would rather continuously press the button than walk away for 5 seconds to eat so they don't fucking die. They had to be removed from the cage periodically just to keep the things alive.
Anyway, back to the main premise of this exercise: I see this as basically the moral equivalent to suicide. The only real difference is one implies removing yourself from the world to avoid some form of suffering and the other is doing much the same except it's for acquiring untold amounts of pleasure. The existence of such a machine would make for a great suicide alternative, but I don't think the wider range of non-suicidal individuals would enlist for something so permanent.

As for myself: maybe in 50-60 years time when I've pretty much outlived my purpose anyway and I'm just counting down the days until I die. But even then, it's debatable whether I'd do it if the option were put forward to me. As the saying goes: the only guy who wants to live to be 90 is an 89 year old. All the grandstanding about not wanting to be an old fuck go out the window once the time to make the decision comes.
I recall a similar experiment, or possibly two experiments where mice left in a box with nothing to do will self administer cocaine over and over to excess, while a mouse left in a maze with cocaine dispenser in one room and with other mice will not self administer cocaine to excess.

The conclusion was something about how if you have a rich life with high socialization you are less inclined to develop a drug problem.

It was basically an argument against the experiment that showed mice will self administer cocaine into excess until they die and thus humans will as well.
 
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Ok think im gonna unplug now...
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You are also welcome
 
A pleasure machine sounds like a bad idea and reminds me a smidge of The Electric State. I dont wanna get super philosophical but I feel like a lot of life is about suffering and monotony and wanting and that ugly, natural reality is what makes pleasure a particularly valuable thing to humans. If you could just bang any girl you met what would be the point in trying at all to look nice or be attractive. Or if you could just create a fantastic piece of art why go through the frustration of practice, why have endless funds whats the point in learning anything new or cramming all night for exams or getting on a surfboard and missing every wave until you finally ride one. It's that wanting and suffering to get there that makes pleasure worth going after. If I could plug in for an hour I would but not if I could never unplug. I'd rather be mostly miserable and find pleasure in what I could with whatever small meaning it gave me than feel pleasure endlessly for no reason.
 
No. Pain and sadness is necessary.
As deep and insightful as you think this sounds, it's not. It's the kind of thing an angsty 14 year old would say, and that's coming from someone who was once an angsty 14 year old all the way into his very early 20's. While a bit of suffering may be necessary to help one cope with negative emotions in the future, that's made irrelevant by the fact that you have a lifetime of nothing but pleasure promised to you by this machine. Your suffering doesn't mean shit if only pleasure awaits you after making that one decision to plug in.
 
Depends on how these "physical pleasures" manifest. Is it like dreaming, where I get to "live" in a fantasy world for the rest of my life? Or is it more akin to having my neurons stimulated with dopamine? If it's the former, then that kind of sounds alright. If the latter, then no, because in certain circumstances the brain builds up a tolerance to heavy doses of dopamine, resulting in diminishing returns until you can't feel any pleasure anymore.
 
no-one wants anything to do with your gay wank machine
 
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From my understanding this is basically what happens to people who do meth. Meth releases several hundred times more dopamine than an orgasm and is viciously addictive.
 
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As deep and insightful as you think this sounds, it's not. It's the kind of thing an angsty 14 year old would say, and that's coming from someone who was once an angsty 14 year old all the way into his very early 20's. While a bit of suffering may be necessary to help one cope with negative emotions in the future, that's made irrelevant by the fact that you have a lifetime of nothing but pleasure promised to you by this machine. Your suffering doesn't mean shit if only pleasure awaits you after making that one decision to plug in.

Fuck off, without pain you have nothing to compare pleasure to, so what utility is pleasure at all?
 
Fuck off, without pain you have nothing to compare pleasure to, so what utility is pleasure at all?
To keep people powerless and pacified. They aren't out bothering you and me with their bullshit because they're in the gentlest form of imprisonment humans had ever invented. Once you have them hooked you can use it like a noose around the neck to lead them around and make them do what you tell them to.
 
The twist: there IS no pleasure machine, you’re just shot up with heroin and gassed until you fall unconscious and die.

What’s the difference between actually experiencing eternal pleasure and dying peacefully while BELIEVING that you’ll be experiencing eternal pleasure? Once you’re dead, you won’t be around to complain anyways.
 
Fuck off, without pain you have nothing to compare pleasure to, so what utility is pleasure at all?
Again with the angsty teen tier sophistry...
You don't need to experience the polar opposite of a thing to experience the thing. Let me flip the argument for you:
"without pleasure you have nothing to compare pain to." See how dumb that is? You don't need to have ever enjoyed a thing in your damn life to know stubbing your toe sucks. And stubbing your toe constantly all your life without reprieve would suck all of your life. Sure, there is a factor of "getting used to it." But that doesn't mean it ever really stops sucking.
With the machine in question, you're feeling awesome constantly for the rest of your life. Perhaps the sensation would dull down over time. But that doesn't mean it ever really stops being awesome.

Furthermore, if you are in a position where you're given this choice, chances are you've already experienced some pain to compare the pleasure to. So the point is moot anyway.
 
This idea isn't exactly new. There were a series of experiments done in the 1960s, ironically to cure people of being gay. The idea was that by stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain enough, a gay guy would want to fuck a woman for once. Didn't really work out that way. They did find though that the patients would obviously sit there and press the button a lot. Because why wouldn't you?

Truth be told that's not the only experiment they did dicking around with this technology, just the one people like to repeat because its amusing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_brain_stimulation

As for me personally, I dunno. I already listen to music way too loud in my headphones, or watch movies, or you know, really just do anything that means I don't have to think about reality. Personally I'm really uncomfortable with this topic because it fundamentally dismantles human psychology down to like the most basic level possible. How much more basic can you get than just pushing a button to genuinely enjoy yourself? That's kind of like the ultimate temptation when you think about it.

In the experiments it was reported that the subjects maintained their personalities and were perfectly capable of holding a conversation. They weren't euphoric, listless, drugged or otherwise out of their minds. For all intensive purposes they felt perfectly normal. At least until it was noted that they were neglecting very basic things like eating or drinking, because your pain/pleasure response controls your basic desire to live. Hypothetically this technology could cure depression and a whole host of other disorders but the implications of it are terrifying.
 
I can guarantee if OP was right next to you and offering to let you use it, you'd be plugged in in an instant.
 
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Honestly, I’ve been realizing that sexual pleasure is only as good if your with someone else. I’m tried of the whole self pleasuring that we as a society have diluted to. Not having someone to actually bond with, to feel what having a partner who you respect and love with all your heart, and they give you the same thing. It’s like a void sometimes when it’s yourself, it’s the whole in things.

That's pretty gay bro. What a fag.

Look at this loser who wants to be in a legitimate relationship with love and respect and all that GAY stuff. Real men use holes for what they are good for and throw them a way.

Love is for fags.
 
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