Electrical Stimulation of the Brain

How would you like to be wired for pleasure, at your command?  Imagine having the ability to simply push a pocket sized remote control to electrically shock your brain and receive a jolt of pleasure.  The more you would push the remote, the more pleasure you would receive.  Bliss, hey?

But what if there were a way to achieve the same “high” sensation as one can get from illegal drugs, anytime, anywhere, and without the chemical side effects and criminal motivation? Such a technology does exist, and has seen limited use in humans for several decades. The practice is known as evoking pleasure by Electrical Stimulation of the Brain (ESB), and despite its invention in 1954, few people have ever heard of it, and much fewer have ever experienced it. It sounds like the stuff of science-fiction, but it’s real technology.

I don’t think I would opt for it.  Legal or not.

Via Damn Interesting in a post titled Technology and the Pursuit of Happiness

Here’s a bit more scholarly treatment of the subject:  Pleasure Systems in the Brain

Posted by on 09/14 at 05:32 PM

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