The reward circuitry in the brain is very much fundamental to how we operate and what motivates us in life. This is why drugs can be so life destroying. People tend to restructure their life so that they can keep getting that reward, at the expense of everything else.
It's something that's maybe hard to understand unless you've done drugs. I used to go out raving and do MDMA a lot. At the peak I was doing it almost every weekend. Until I found myself going out alone and looking for opportunities to go out, even if nobody I knew was going or the party wasn't good. I thought I really liked dancing, but I eventually realized, my brain was looking for an excuse to put me in that environment where I would typically do drugs, even if I actually knew going out that night would be a shitty experience. In other words, when you mess with your reward circuitry, your brain will begin to "lie" to you to guide you back to situations where you will get more of that reward. Your way of thinking will shift, and you might not even notice.
I personally don't think there is any way that brain implants can hook into our reward circuit and be used in a safe/responsible way. At least, not if the users themselves have direct control. The only way it could maybe be used sustainably is to reward certain behaviors in a way that the person themselves doesn't have control over, but that's a whole other dystopian can of worms. Personally, I think brain implants might fuck up society beyond recognition. Imagine if people could turn their sex drive on or off at will, or stop themselves from falling in love, get over someone instantly, make themselves love their miserable jobs. Sounds great right? Except we'll stop being human, we'll become machines.
It's something that's maybe hard to understand unless you've done drugs. I used to go out raving and do MDMA a lot. At the peak I was doing it almost every weekend. Until I found myself going out alone and looking for opportunities to go out, even if nobody I knew was going or the party wasn't good. I thought I really liked dancing, but I eventually realized, my brain was looking for an excuse to put me in that environment where I would typically do drugs, even if I actually knew going out that night would be a shitty experience. In other words, when you mess with your reward circuitry, your brain will begin to "lie" to you to guide you back to situations where you will get more of that reward. Your way of thinking will shift, and you might not even notice.
I personally don't think there is any way that brain implants can hook into our reward circuit and be used in a safe/responsible way. At least, not if the users themselves have direct control. The only way it could maybe be used sustainably is to reward certain behaviors in a way that the person themselves doesn't have control over, but that's a whole other dystopian can of worms. Personally, I think brain implants might fuck up society beyond recognition. Imagine if people could turn their sex drive on or off at will, or stop themselves from falling in love, get over someone instantly, make themselves love their miserable jobs. Sounds great right? Except we'll stop being human, we'll become machines.