Is it time to give people the option of having electrodes implanted into the pleasure centers of their brains?

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Such a device would merely increase the temptation to seek instant gratification and lure people away from true love which cannot be based on instant gratification for oneself
 
Sometimes it seems like pleasure is the only thing that makes this life bearable. I volunteer for the experiement.
 
Sometimes it seems like pleasure is the only thing that makes this life bearable. I volunteer for the experiement.
Life isn’t something to “bear”. It will end on its own, against our will. Our task is to prepare for eternity. And you can’t do that in a pleasure cloud. ICXC NIKA
 
Sometimes it seems like pleasure is the only thing that makes this life bearable. I volunteer for the experiement.
I thought life gave you opportunities to carry the Cross.

Considering how life can be unpleasant often enough, I would think the Cross would have been lifted up so high by now that Jesus would have come back after the long absence.
Retained what he could retain and then left just as quick as he came again.
Blink of an eye.
 
Life isn’t something to “bear”. It will end on its own, against our will. Our task is to prepare for eternity. And you can’t do that in a pleasure cloud. ICXC NIKA
We bear pain, and your God promised pain to come to the woman bearing a child for example.
Others also, of course. Depending on what time period.
 
Back in the day the “common sense” was:
Blacks are bad.
Women can not vote.
Let’s ban alcohol because we can see Mohammed got that control factor right on!

This was all “common sense” and still is with the unelected. And un…
Thanks for stereotyping and painting with the broad brush by assuming we have learned absolutely nothing the last few decades. We certainly have made some progress. At least “some” of the unelected are not given microphones. And un- what?
 
I thought life gave you opportunities to carry the Cross.

Considering how life can be unpleasant often enough, I would think the Cross would have been lifted up so high by now that Jesus would have come back after the long absence.
Retained what he could retain and then left just as quick as he came again.
Blink of an eye.
The more pain one bears, the more one can bear sacrificial love for others and appreciate simpler pleasures. It’s better than being stuck in a perpetual pursuit of shallow amusements for the self. But our relative wealth and free will in the U.S. allows us to choose to please the self. The self can never be satisfied. Only when we give our lives away can we learn to live and fully appreciate life. That’s the whole point of Catholicism. It’s the exact opposite of what feels natural to our childish desires. We just need to grow up.
 
IMAGINE the pain of all the lost loved ones of those killed in drunk and stoned driving accidents that could have theoretically been avoided if the driver had a pleasure button.
 
I think, at least for some people I know, I would place the electrodes in another body part. :eek:
Haha.

Either way, sure I’m for it. People can do what they want with their bodies. If they have the money to pay for it.
 
IMAGINE the pain of all the lost loved ones of those killed in drunk and stoned driving accidents that could have theoretically been avoided if the driver had a pleasure button.
I can imagine many more senarios of pain as a direct cause of something else. They may not have been able to avoid. Someone else’s pleasure button. Someone trusted.
 
I can imagine many more senarios of pain as a direct cause of something else. They may not have been able to avoid. Someone else’s pleasure button. Someone trusted.
I’m not sure I understand your point. If you are saying that someone was abused due to someone else’s desires, then that might be another argument in favor of a pleasure button for the abuser. I don’t think abusers want to hurt someone else, they just care about their own selfish desires more than the victim’s. An abuser would find it easier to press the button where the highest pleasure would be administered rather than risk a lesser sensation and hurting others. Hopefully, anyway.
 
Since more people are being tempted away from true love and into instant gratification, maybe we should just give people the option to have electrodes implanted into the pleasure centers of their brains like the famous lab rat experiment. For those not familiar, electrodes were implanted into the pleasure centers of the brains of rats. A “pleasure button” was placed in the rat’s cage, where, when the rat pressed the button, the electrode would stimulate extreme pleasure for the rat to feel. They had it rigged where, if the rat wanted pleasure too often, a negative stimulus was given once the prescribed “greedy” threshold was crossed. We could just skip the greedy threshold for humans since many would just bypass the threshold by finding other ways to have a few moments of casual ecstasy anyway. They could have the electrodes implanted in their brains and we could place the pleasure button on their belts. Then, they could walk around and push the pleasure button as often as they liked. It would save the public the medical costs of STD treatment and abortions and innocence would be preserved because public lewdness would no longer be necessary, thanks to this ultimate device for those who will seek instant gratification no matter how hard others try to save them.
Thoughts?
I guess your scenario would be the equivalent of mental masturbation?
 
I’m not sure I understand your point. If you are saying that someone was abused due to someone else’s desires, then that might be another argument in favor of a pleasure button for the abuser. I don’t think abusers want to hurt someone else, they just care about their own selfish desires more than the victim’s. An abuser would find it easier to press the button where the highest pleasure would be administered rather than risk a lesser sensation and hurting others. Hopefully, anyway.
I hope you are right, but based on the crime literature out there, there really are persons who enjoy having power over and using it to hurt other human beings; and this craving, or enjoyment, is so compelling that they risk prison or execution to satisfy it. Perhaps such persons, when caught, should be the first subjects in clinical study of “the button”?

God Bless and ICXC NIKA.
 
I hope you are right, but based on the crime literature out there, there really are persons who enjoy having power over and using it to hurt other human beings; and this craving, or enjoyment, is so compelling that they risk prison or execution to satisfy it. Perhaps such persons, when caught, should be the first subjects in clinical study of “the button”?

God Bless and ICXC NIKA.
I wonder if we then are feeding the monster? Perhaps remove that part of the brain that craves it. This way we do not have to execute or imprison them for life.

There are some ethical problems with either senario.
 
I wonder if we then are feeding the monster? Perhaps remove that part of the brain that craves it. This way we do not have to execute or imprison them for life.

There are some ethical problems with either senario.
What’s the ethical problem if the button is voluntary for placement?

I find it more insulting that the regressives are reducing us into hedonistic minions who are addicted to the perpetual pursuit of shallow amusements with their promotion of lust and drug legalization. Soma for the masses. Now THAT’S insulting!
 
Though some of the posts on this thread are rather crude, I’ll toss in my 2 cents, because I think the OP was being satirical like Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal.”

In a fallen world - I’m guilty myself - whatever we do for pleasure, if done to excess, not only causes us to commit sins of commission (e.g. drunk driving), it also causes us to commit sins of omission (e.g. not spending quality time with one’s spouse, not caring whether one’s children have what they need).

The human brain, as mentioned, would be negatively affected - poisoned or burnt out, resulting in a hellish existence when the gizmo no longer worked.:mad:
 
What’s the ethical problem if the button is voluntary for placement?

I find it more insulting that the regressives are reducing us into hedonistic minions who are addicted to the perpetual pursuit of shallow amusements with their promotion of lust and drug legalization. Soma for the masses. Now THAT’S insulting!
In the situation described, we can be fairly certain mental illness may be at play, limiting the person’s ability to make rational decisions of any kind. If one uses the button there would not be anything voluntary about it, or consentual.

I’ve seemed to be able to avoid these dangerous regressives you speak of. Not sure why there isn’t some type of addiction consuling available to those who suffer from the Lust addictions you mention. I hear more about sexual matters here at CAF than I do on TV or anywhere else. Maybe religion should step back and realize they spend a lot of time talking about sex. Who are these regressives? You make it sound like they are very powerful and no one can simply walk away from their promotions. Maybe they give really good coupons out?
 
The human brain, as mentioned, would be negatively affected - poisoned or burnt out, resulting in a hellish existence when the gizmo no longer worked.:mad:
It’s a fun topic. What makes you so sure the brain would be burned out? Does the pleasure we receive from sex burn out the brain? What makes you think it would stop working. Drug overdoses stop the body from functioning. The pleasure doesn’t.
 
In the situation described, we can be fairly certain mental illness may be at play, limiting the person’s ability to make rational decisions of any kind. If one uses the button there would not be anything voluntary about it, or consentual.
Having the pleasure button inserted would be voluntary. There’s no obligation to push it. Are you suggesting that people have no free will to prevent themselves from overdosing on it? Maybe you’re right, but how would anyone know for sure? Is there any other research to indicate what humanity would do if given limitless opportunity for pleasure with no sacrifice involved?
 
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