A superstimulus is, quoth Wikipedia: A supernormal stimulus or superstimulus is an exaggerated version of a stimulus to which there is an existing response tendency, or any stimulus that elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which it evolved.
This is a very good point. I was raised to think sex without birth control was exactly as problematic as that other stuff. But when I told my mom hot peppers cause endorphins to be released, she said she probably shouldn't eat them anymore then because they're basically drugs, and...I just don't want to live like that! If things are fun and not harmful, I want to do those things.
"Endorphins being released" is a very normal part of the brain chemistry of enjoying most things, not a sign that something is trying to push your brain chemistry into an abnormal and unnatural state.
I take avoidance of superstimulus pretty seriously, and I found your article completely uncompelling. It seems like you intentionally chose silly examples because those examples help make your point.
"But what about bananas!?"
Okay, what about heroin?
Perhaps a strawman-superstimulus-avoider living in your head would be shaken by your arguments, but I just feel like they miss the point.
if you design a robot with a simple phototropic program for an environment filled with sixty-watt lightbulbs, and you shine a thousand-watt spotlight on the robot, that's a superstimulus. if you take a pair of alligator clips and run a thousand volts through the wire connecting the light sensor to the circuit board, that's a hack.
Ozy's point above is precisely that the category of "superstimulus" has been subject to the kind of folk misunderstanding that your comment exhibits. if you're worried about hacking your reward systems and/or developing compulsive behaviors unaligned with your goals, that's a completely reasonable concern! but "superstimulus" is not the category of experiences you are worried about. Some of the things you are worried about are conventional stimuli; some are superstimuli; some are not stimuli at all. That was the point of the post.
Oh, yeah that's a good point. Heroin is not a "super" version of a normal stimulus. Although a quick google search turns up plenty of articles where people refer to drugs as superstimulus, I think I should personally refrain from doing that in the future.
Looking back at the original article, I can't actually figure out the point of it.
I'm sure that Ozy thinks superstimulus is good, although she was careful not to come out and say that in this post, so that doesn't leave me a lot of room to argue against it.
This is a very good point. I was raised to think sex without birth control was exactly as problematic as that other stuff. But when I told my mom hot peppers cause endorphins to be released, she said she probably shouldn't eat them anymore then because they're basically drugs, and...I just don't want to live like that! If things are fun and not harmful, I want to do those things.
"Endorphins being released" is a very normal part of the brain chemistry of enjoying most things, not a sign that something is trying to push your brain chemistry into an abnormal and unnatural state.
I take avoidance of superstimulus pretty seriously, and I found your article completely uncompelling. It seems like you intentionally chose silly examples because those examples help make your point.
"But what about bananas!?"
Okay, what about heroin?
Perhaps a strawman-superstimulus-avoider living in your head would be shaken by your arguments, but I just feel like they miss the point.
heroin is not a superstimulus, it's a hack.
if you design a robot with a simple phototropic program for an environment filled with sixty-watt lightbulbs, and you shine a thousand-watt spotlight on the robot, that's a superstimulus. if you take a pair of alligator clips and run a thousand volts through the wire connecting the light sensor to the circuit board, that's a hack.
Ozy's point above is precisely that the category of "superstimulus" has been subject to the kind of folk misunderstanding that your comment exhibits. if you're worried about hacking your reward systems and/or developing compulsive behaviors unaligned with your goals, that's a completely reasonable concern! but "superstimulus" is not the category of experiences you are worried about. Some of the things you are worried about are conventional stimuli; some are superstimuli; some are not stimuli at all. That was the point of the post.
Oh, yeah that's a good point. Heroin is not a "super" version of a normal stimulus. Although a quick google search turns up plenty of articles where people refer to drugs as superstimulus, I think I should personally refrain from doing that in the future.
Looking back at the original article, I can't actually figure out the point of it.
I'm sure that Ozy thinks superstimulus is good, although she was careful not to come out and say that in this post, so that doesn't leave me a lot of room to argue against it.