The Dating Algorithm

Dating, or pursuing a relationship, is an example of a stochastic search with simulated annealing algorithm. You work on improving your relationship, but sometimes you get stuck in a rut, in a local optimum. There might be new and wonderful experiences out there, but you can't see past what's in front of you. So, once in a small probability, you shake things up and take a risk. You try something new: different person, different place, different activity. The probability, related to the "temperature" parameter, decreases as you get older, until finally you stop taking those risks and settle down to that life, for better or worse.

(Note to self: I should make an animation of this algorithm.)

This post is a sneak peek at the next part of the hedonism series: Relationship engineering.

Soma madness!

Let's imagine the perfect drug.

(This is part 2 of the hedonism series. Put your party hats on!)

First, it shouldn't have any unwanted side effects. No physical impairment (drunk), no addiction or physical dependence (heroin), no long term impact on your body (cancer from smoking), no bad trips, no risk of overdose, no withdrawal symptoms, no buildup of tolerance.

Thanks to advances in biochemistry, we know why these side effects occur. For example, a chemical called dynorphin blocks the reward pathway in your brain, inhibiting you from feeling the same pleasure over and over. If you use cocaine repeatedly, your brain makes more dynorphin and you won't get the same high you got when you started. Addiction is more complicated, but there's no reason why we can't figure out a cure.

So the perfect drug has no nasty side effects, but what can it do for you?

The pleasure drugs: These are the ones that directly stimulate the reward centers of your brain: new forms of heroin, oxycotin, morphine, drugs that wash away pain and turns your pleasure dial up beyond what is natural. It doesn't have to be a chemical substance either; scientists have successfully hooked up electrode to the spinal nerve of disabled patients and use it to trigger orgasms. If possible, electrical brain stimulation (wireheading) may provide a safer and cleaner high than chemicals.

But getting high is boring, one-dimensional. It's a solitary and selfish experience; you can't share it with other people in any meaningful way. Press a button, take a dose, and you'll be checking out of reality, floating through outer space, alone. There's not much else you can do when the intense artificial pleasure eclipses all other feelings. What might that do to your psyche? Look:

A portrait of loneliness: Kurt Cobain spent his last years struggling with heroin addiction; this was him on a good day.

The mood drugs: These drugs affect you in subtler, but more diverse ways. Unlike the pleasure pills, you'll stay grounded in reality, but your mood, personality and motivations are shifted in the designed direction.

Shown here in a common delivery device, caffeine is the second most popular drug in the world.

They can make a depressed person happier (Zoloft, Prozac), calm your anxieties and ease your stress;  they can make you friendlier (Ecstasy), more open and empathic, lower your inhibitions (alcohol); they can make you more motivated, focused (Ritalin, Adderall), raise your alertness (caffeine); they can make you feel safer and more secure, more trustful (oxytocin), increase your libido (testosterone), and even make you fall in love.

Yes, love; read the wireheading article and take note: "Repetition of these stimulations made the patient more communicative and flirtatious, and she ended by openly expressing her desire to marry the therapist." Dr. Paul Zak has also found link between the chemical oxytocin and feelings of social trust and attachment to lovers, to friends, to children, to God.

So you can become fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, but is there an upper limit? That's what David Pearce asks, and he postulates a future where our level of well-being far exceeds what we feel today, a sublime happiness. What that would be like I can barely imagine. But I know that in the future, "not in the mood" will no longer be a hindrance; I can be in the mood, any mood, as long as I want to. That's freedom of self-expression.

But mood drugs are imprecise; they depend on the action of chemicals like serotonin that paints a broad spectrum of effects. It won't engage any higher-level mental concepts, only your gut-feelings. No wistful reminiscence, no bittersweet goodbyes, no victorious thrills. Though these drugs can prime you to enjoy living, you still have to go outside and actually do it. That brings us to the third kind...

The sensory drugs: These can make what you do feel better by enhancing and distorting your senses. In addition to their positive effects on mood, MDMA (Ecstasy) and methaqualone (quaaludes) can enhance your sensations of touch, making sex more pleasurable and intense. Mushrooms , mescaline, LSD, and other hallucinogens can change your perception in profound ways. Some color-blind people have even reported being able to see color while under the effects of LSD.

Depiction of the very first LSD trip: chemist Albert Hofmann biked home after taking ten times the regular dose.

So imagine that special occasion when you want the food and wine to taste a bit more delicious, the lights and the smile to look more vivid, the touch and the kiss to be more sensual, and everything basking in the soft glow of a heightened appreciation for reality. Think of a dance party, the music, the rhythm and movement. Think of running or swimming or biking and the incredible sense of freedom and speed you can get from just normal, everyday activities. You won't have to jump off mountains get that thrill!

You may have noticed that I've skipped over something between getting in the right mood and experiencing enhanced sensations. In this giant gap of the story is where we actually live our lives, where we work and learn and play. In here lies the difference between the false utopia of Brave New World, and the rich, varied, and fulfilling future you and I want to live in. And that's where I'll explore in the next part of Hedonism for the Transhuman.

Random thoughts and links:

• You know what I want? A reset button: something that can roll back your brain to a saved state. That way I can satisfy my curiosity on whatever I wish to try without worrying about any adverse and unforeseen effects. I get to keep all memories, but my emotional outlook, preferences, and goals can be safeguarded against unforeseen consequences. It's pure fantasy though.
  
  
• There's a major obstacle to what kind of chemicals we can put into our brains: the blood-brain barrier. It stops most cells, bacteria and large chemical molecules from entering the brain.
  
  
• Erowid.org has a comprehensive collection of facts, advice, and anecdotes about drug use.
  
  
• Neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee has raised some ethical concerns about the future of pharmacological enhancements. I'll have to think about some of his objections to a drug-fueled society.

Transhumanist hedonism: or, let's party like it's 2099.

What's the point of living longer if you're not having any fun? I wouldn't want to do the same old same old for another 40 years, let alone for the kind of lifespan that de Grey envisions. So, How do we extend the range and depth of the human experience? According to sci-fi canon, futuristic recreation will come along the big three: drugs, sex, and videogames.

But lets go back to the original mythology for a moment: what is heaven like? Not the afterlife that's held out as a reward for the religious faithful; I'm talking about the general concept of an ideal, perfect existence. Transcendental well-being, without bounds.

It seems to me that the traditional Christian version of Heaven is not nearly as well-depicted as the Christian Hell, the fire and brimstone. I can easily imagine an eternity of suffering, but what is the opposite of that? Is it just an eternity of happiness with your family and loved ones?

Don't get me started on the whole 72 virgins thing for Islam; what happens when you run out of virgins?? (Most people don't believe this anyway, like the Christian imagery of clouds and angels and harps.)

A perpetual drug-like high, the kind that's induced by opium or heroin? Everlasting orgasm?

Pure blissful happiness, forever? Wouldn't that get boring? 
 


Here, Picard and Kirk are stuck in the Nexus, which makes real all their dreams and desires. The best starship captain in the galaxy only wants a fancy Christmas dinner with well-dressed children and a carousel? Chopping wood by a mountain cabin? Please. Besides, any place that you wish to leave is inadequate as heaven.

Maybe heaven is conflict? Drama and adventure, battles and challenges, pain and sacrifice, love and loss, defending the galaxy, thrilling in victory, forever striving and achieving?

What do you want in your personal heaven?

Famed transhumanist David Pearce proposes to bring about heaven on Earth using technology, what he calls paradise engineering. First eliminate pain and suffering, then boost our baseline sense of well-being. The possible methods: designer drugs, wireheading, genetic engineering.

It's a noble goal, but like our visions of heaven, it is one-dimensional and incomplete. Transhumanism should aim to expand the scope of human experience, and that does not simply stop at happiness.

So what else is a hedonist to do? Stay tuned!

Green sea slugs and dryads

Here's a fascinating creature: a sea slug that stole the ability of photosynthesis from algae, turning itself into an animal/plant hybrid. Not only does it incorporate chloroplasts (tiny organelles inside plant cells) into its own cells, it has also appropriated the right genes from algae to make the symbiosis work.

Think of the advantages for the slug! A creature that's notorious for being slow and vulnerable now has all the food it can desire, produced right inside its own cells. Free food for life! And all it needs is sunlight.

If you're a transhumanist, you'd be thinking how we can get that ability for ourselves. Imagine: solving world hunger with a vaccine. It's clear to me that world hunger can not be solved by simply giving people food - it's a complex social and economic and political problem. But what if we have the technology to bypass all that mess, and inject the genes into those who are starving, so they and their children would never have to be hungry again?

Of course there would be side effects. Your skin turns green. Wearing clothing will block the sunlight. You'll need more surface area than what your skin can provide to get enough energy - leafy hair should do the trick. So there might be new forms of prejudice. But I think naked green-skinned people with leafy hair would be totally awesome:

Some interesting factoids:

• Most of the population suffering from hunger live near equatorial regions where sunlight is plentiful year-round: India and Africa.
  
• Plants are less efficient than broad spectrum solar panels. In plants, chlorophyll don't absorb green frequency light, instead reflecting it and giving leafs their familiar color. But, whereas solar panels produce electricity, the photosynthesis process in plants produces sugar, which can be used directly by our bodies.
  
• Dryads are creatures in Greek myth, also known as tree nymphs.

Story from:
Leaf-like sea slug feeds on light
PNAS journal article: Horizontal gene transfer of the algal nuclear gene psbO to the photosynthetic sea slug Elysia chlorotica
Picture credit: http://www.presidiacreative.com/23-spectacular-examples-of-digital-art-by-artemis-kolakis/

"Reinventing Humanity"

Neil Tyson mentioned in a recent talk that the main obstacle between academia and the public is a lack of good soundbites: short, quotable phrases that are easy to remember and easy to retell. For example: "Supernova, the biggest explosions in the cosmos!"

The shortest bits are catch-phrases that has great meme potential. People in marketing and propaganda know the power of these catch-phrases: "Yes we can", "Can you hear me now?". I propose "Reinventing humanity" for transhumanism. You can put that on a pin, on a sticker, on a poster. It's unique. When you google it, you'll find this article by Kurzweil. Perfect 10-second soundbite.

Now we need a slightly longer explanation that will help people understand the concept. A sentence or two, no longer than that, leading into a 5 minute conversation. Instead of a description, I would ask a question: "If you had the power to redesign and remake human beings, what would you change? How would you make us better?" This question will empower the imagination of the listener, and it provides a great segue into examples of medical and technical advances. (I hope you have a few of these ready! If not, keep following my blog :) Show them why reinventing humanity is not hypothetical, and why the answer is important to us now.

If you still have their attention, you can bring up the more abstract, yet more important aspects of transhumanism. Why "reinventing humanity" instead of "reinventing human"? Our experiences, our lives, are not limited to the physical body; changes ripple outward and reshape our society and culture. How will technology change the way you live? What would the world be like if we can stop aging, if we can modify our genes, if we can record everything we see and hear, if we can enhance our minds and bodies for a price, if we can transfer our minds into other bodies and other forms, if we can alter our moods at the press of a button? These what-ifs show why transhumanism requires more than science and technology, and points out the great demand it has for humanities research too: sociology, psychology, philosophy, ethics, economics. Hours of discussion can follow.

So next time you speak to someone about transhumanism, just remember:

"It's about reinventing humanity."

Fire

A man is washing his feet by the river. Another man runs up to him, and says between heaving breaths, "Please, sir, help me, my house is on fire! Everything I have is burning down!"

The first looks up and says to the second, "Look to your left and look to your right. The entire city is on fire."

The second man insists, "You have to help me, please, do something!"

Two men are washing their feet by the river.

Usability (A short story)

God damn, how can we even consider releasing something like this? We should just scrap him.

We can't. The dev team will go nuts; they've spent years on this one; all those delays, the resources...

Doesn't mean we can't cut our losses now. Forget about this and reassign the programmers to someone more promising.

Promising? We all thought he was going to be the next big thing! The RL Chiang of the West; heck, he was suppose to crush the Chinese models. Everybody bought the hype. Maybe that was the problem. The devs worked on the hype instead of on what's in front of them. Their managers should have kept their heads down, instead of blabbering about him on all the forums.

Who cares what went wrong? He's still a completely unusable piece of crap.