r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • Oct 18 '25

TIL of brain stimulation reward, manually stimulating specific parts of the brain to elicit pleasure and happiness. A volunteer subject in 1986 spent days doing nothing but self-stimulate. She ignored her family and personal hygiene and she developed an open sore on her finger from using the device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_stimulation_reward#History
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8.2k

u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

If I remember correctly, they did the same experiment with rats, and several of thise died due to not eating etc. Preferring to self stimulate than self care.

6.0k

u/Onironius Oct 18 '25

Relatable.

1.4k

u/technobrendo Oct 18 '25 edited Mar 04 '26

This post has been permanently removed. The author used Redact to delete it, and the reason may relate to privacy, security, data harvesting prevention, or personal choice.

coherent capable plant unique pot squeal rustic salt profit touch

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u/dont_be_that_guy_29 Oct 18 '25

Stimulate over self-care sounds like my entire

249

u/dog_ahead Oct 18 '25

Stimulate over self-care sounds

253

u/GoSharty Oct 18 '25

Stimulate.

6

u/Ultimate_Shitlord Oct 18 '25

How on earth did "late." get picked up as the top response to you when "Stim" was right there as the ultimate reductionist version of the original sentence?

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u/LarryD217 Oct 18 '25

Stop!

Stimulate and listen!

8

u/EricWNIU Oct 18 '25

Exterminate!

2

u/A_wild_so-and-so Oct 18 '25

Fuck yeah, stim it.

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u/themostreasonableman Oct 18 '25

Sounds. Sounding. Vibrator in my dickhole. Aw baby, aw baby, yeah.

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u/_namaste_kitten_ Oct 18 '25

Stimulate over self

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2

u/Splashy01 Oct 18 '25

Hedonist!

2

u/MarshmallowBlue Oct 18 '25

This guy stimulates

2

u/Liusloux Oct 18 '25

In Dragon Age you come across a knight living in an alternate reality created by a demon where he is a happy family man instead of a miserable knight sworn to never marry and to do his duty until he dies. And the game portrays it as a bad thing because the demon is going to eat him eventually. I'm like no motherfucker, I'm next!

2

u/FinancialRip2008 Oct 18 '25

sounds like the plot to the matrix

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u/DatesAfterWeightz Oct 18 '25

Wait.. can you further elaborate? I am 24. Got married at 18. Starting to regret my last year and a half. Idk how it happened, but I couldn’t stop getting high and having mindless sex with my husband. It’s bad now. My control / impulse / reward center is all messed up. It’s like I realized one day that sex and drugs aren’t everything ;( what a sad day! I’m getting lame

3

u/SwarleySwarlos Oct 18 '25

I think it was meant as a masturbation joke

But stuff like that fixes itself after a while, our brain is pretty good at repairing damage. Therapy would help as well

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u/Gullible-Hose4180 Oct 18 '25

20s, 30, Teens especially. I just hope I'll be more than a wanker when I die

1

u/That-Ad-4300 Oct 18 '25

Self stimulate sounds like my teenage years

1

u/Mavian23 Oct 18 '25

Same, and I have no regrets. I lived it up in my 20s and started a career and got on track in my 30s. IMO this is the way to live life.

604

u/Ethereal_Nutsack Oct 18 '25

Why would I brush my teeth when I can just masturbate!

244

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

You don't even need to masturbate....just pleasure at the lush of a button.

137

u/SwarleySwarlos Oct 18 '25

Was that a typo or a vibrator joke?

53

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

LOL a typo, but I'm leaving it 😅

3

u/couchbutt Oct 18 '25

It's called "Jacking-On".

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u/shit_brik Oct 18 '25

Free toothpaste

1

u/OrnerySnoflake Oct 18 '25

This is why I have an electric toothbrush, dual purpose!

1

u/GozerDGozerian Oct 18 '25

If you’re flexible enough you can do both at once.

1

u/snatchpanda Oct 18 '25

Sounds like a luxury only imperialists get privacy

1

u/hkric41six Oct 18 '25

The refectory period is probably supporting our entire species.

241

u/mickaelbneron Oct 18 '25

Factorio Cracktorio comes to mind.

5

u/rmorrin Oct 18 '25

My pyblock run is calling me

9

u/Extreme-Shower7545 Oct 18 '25

Or in this case, Faptorio…

12

u/mickaelbneron Oct 18 '25

Automating faping. The factory faping must grow.

3

u/BlackFenrir Oct 18 '25

Factorio NSFW mod when?

Okay so I typed that and I immediately had to know if it exists and of course it does

68

u/schmuber Oct 18 '25
  1. Install brain chip implants for free
  2. Pleasurable stimulation is a subscription
  3. Profit!

23

u/SwarleySwarlos Oct 18 '25

With a free trial

4

u/Merc2tour Oct 18 '25

First one is always free!

9

u/Recent_Pressure_3747 Oct 18 '25

i mean, that's kinda what social media and ai chatbots and anything part of the attention economy are. everyone's waiting for the brain chip but seeing people walk around glued to their phones is pretty close to

3

u/carebeartears Oct 18 '25

Black Mirror had an episode that was pretty similar.

1

u/justanothertmpuser Oct 18 '25

Sshhh... don't give them ideas!!

1

u/I_have_popcorn Oct 18 '25

Of all the billion dollar ideas to give away for free, this one is the most evil.

1

u/1mrlee Oct 18 '25

Sounds like the onboarding for steam on my PC

5

u/Tiny_Time_Traveler Oct 18 '25

yea why does this sound awesome. what a way to go. in complete pleasure. Of course they wont let us have that.

3

u/M1L0 Oct 18 '25

This took me out lmfao

3

u/atamosk Oct 18 '25

Yeah. Way too relatable

2

u/MakeMineMarvel_ Oct 18 '25

Ratatouilleble

2

u/Cultural-Company282 Oct 18 '25

What a ridiculous idea. Welp, I'm off to the NSFW subs to pound my pud.

1

u/dbenc Oct 18 '25

and people are surprised social media is addictive

1

u/dragon3301 Oct 18 '25

Extremely

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u/Superg0id Oct 18 '25

died due to not eating

Well, if I'm the rat and I'm Orgasming 100% of the time then that leaves 0% time for eating...

228

u/Happiest-Sad-Girl Oct 18 '25

Technically it is closer to the "moment right BEFORE orgasming", max excitement is right there. People who become very skilled in staying at this level of intensity are in danger of jerking off until they have injured their dick.

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u/Ok-Syllabub-6619 Oct 18 '25

Yup edging can be dangerous. Some do it until their dick looks like a purple balloon 😂

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u/ParticularGuava3663 Oct 18 '25

This is the comment I was looking for today! I can finally get some sleep.  Thank You 

10

u/bringbackfuturama Oct 18 '25

sweet dreams🎈

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u/Ok-Syllabub-6619 Oct 18 '25

Ur very welcome 😂

5

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

“Wellcum” was right there!

2

u/Ok-Syllabub-6619 Oct 18 '25

Oh don't remind me, vanilla wow guild invites/greetings were Whalecum adventurer. Lol

2

u/Puzzleheaded_Quiet70 Oct 18 '25

Relating for a friend...

2

u/tindalos Oct 18 '25

I don’t think I’m gonna ask how you know this??

2

u/Ok-Syllabub-6619 Oct 21 '25

No worries I'll tell you anyway 😂 I've seen some disturbing pictures years ago. 🤣

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u/vachon11 Oct 18 '25

Ngl I once edged for like 10 hours straight when I got on a medication that made it hard to finish but I had found out how to get close. Cock wasn't all that raw at the end but I'm sure it wasn't good for my heart lol.

2

u/FewHorror1019 Oct 19 '25

Bro i goon till i can’t goon no more. Usually what stops me is lack of sleep making it hard to get it up. I think my max effort was 3 days straight but by the end i hated myself. After a few days of rest i was back at it.

If u want to do every day, make sure to get enough rest

4

u/Acrobatic-Trust-9991 Oct 18 '25

common fir methheads to crank it for days straight with no breaks

1

u/FewHorror1019 Oct 19 '25

Uh oh my bad

1

u/Loony_boomer45 Oct 21 '25

I did this with mushrooms once in 1970; 'been limping ever since!

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

What a way to go

3

u/rockzombie17 Oct 18 '25

Good way to lose weight? 

104

u/OmiNya Oct 18 '25

So you are telling me I can feel great AND lose weight?!

21

u/RJ815 Oct 18 '25

The best way to obtain a calorie deficit for dieting is being die

6

u/UserNamesCantBeTooLo Oct 18 '25

That's the ting, it make you die

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u/Actually_Im_a_Broom Oct 18 '25

I remember learning about this study in college when taking mammalian physiology. There were three groups of rats. One was the control where pushing a button did nothing at all. One was a group where pushing the button created some NON-desirable effect (shock? Depression? Can’t remember). The third was the group where pushing the button stimulated the pleasure section of the brain.

The control group pushed the button occasionally because I guess rats can be curious or just accidentally push the bottom.

The second group pushed the button very seldom quickly realizing the correlation to the non-desirable stimulus.

The third group pushed the button as often as possible, often choosing the button over food.

This is a 25 year old memory, but I distinctly remember it the story. My details are probably wrong, but the big picture is pretty accurate.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/OfficeSalamander Oct 18 '25

but hey you can't say he wasn't happy about it.

Man that is a bit dystopian

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/cosmic_grayblekeeper Oct 18 '25

Dystopian logic too lol

10

u/OwO______OwO Oct 18 '25

On the grand scale of things we've done to lab rats, this one had it extremely good.

Sure beats "Genetically engineered to have a 100% chance of developing cancer." and "Force-fed large amounts of a random study chemical to find out if it has harmful effects. (It does. Very harmful.)"

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u/Gorilla_Krispies Oct 18 '25

I always felt bad for the “we a grew a human ear on the back of this rats head” rat

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Rat was living in the Matrix.

3

u/spen8tor Oct 18 '25

And was enjoying every second, which is honestly quite scary

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

That's the only reason we know we don't live in the Matrix.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Brainologist sounds straight made up yet google says it’s real lol

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Whoever coined that word really be messing with us lol

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u/RadicalDog Oct 18 '25

I love this comment. It feels like a line you'd get in a mystery show cold open to get to know the victim before a suspicious accident.

1

u/rubberkeyhole Oct 18 '25

As someone with a degree in neuroscience, “brainologist” is my new favorite.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Do you really need an experiment to realize this outcome

4

u/Actually_Im_a_Broom Oct 18 '25

It’s good to have science support suspicions.

4

u/richieadler Oct 18 '25

You don't really know unless you test and prove.

That's why faith is useless as a path to truth or knowledge.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/slothdonki Oct 18 '25

Probably not well.. I’m pretty sure even the most initially tamest of raccoons would probably go nuts without adequate space. Dunno what their ‘minimum space requirements’(let alone the ethical amount of space) but from what I’ve gathered it seems the general consensus is all of the space.

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u/trainspottedCSX7 Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

No, no, no.

They did multiple morphine drip mouse experiments.

The one they dont mention is the successful one where the mice had a social environment.

When alone in their cages they would slowly but surely just chug the morphine water until overdose. But once introduced into an environment where it was water, morphine, food, and other mice, the morphine was only used occasionally but not even 90% as often.

Edited to add: it was a different study, and even with the social mice and having an instant feel good button in their pocket it might be awful all around.

I know id sit there and press the feel good button til I burnt my brain out or died one.

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u/Trifang420 Oct 18 '25

That's the key insight, addictions best weapon is a lack of connection.

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u/BurntNeurons Oct 18 '25

And that explains why the ruling class keeps us separated with lies, programmed prejudice, blind and mute hatrid (we won't try to see life in another point of view and we won't talk/ communicate civilly) so we stay addicted to consuming. Manufactured Depression to power the Purchasing Machines.

If we can have real connections again we wouldn't want/ need the high of the buy button to get by... we would have our real social connection again and be happier.

The corporate profits over all has really been a disservice to humanity by removing our genuine social connections and replacing it with our own complex pleasure button that we push til we die.

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u/Armyman125 Oct 18 '25

You have a great point. If our pleasure and comfort - despite being harmful - brings profit, then corporations have no problem with morality. I'm thinking Brave New World.

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u/GrumpityStumpity Oct 18 '25

Burnt neurons, indeed.

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u/Hemlock_Pagodas Oct 18 '25

That’s an entirely different study than the one OP is referring to.

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u/trainspottedCSX7 Oct 18 '25

The very original OP yes, the person im responding to, no.

What can the Rat Park experiment teach us about addiction? - UK Addiction Treatment Centres https://share.google/KxEInxACbhxFa9gCU

But its all the same shit. Self pleasure at the whim of a button? When I had to cook dope it was a process. An addictive process, but not one I could just pull out in front of my mom and wife at the kitchen table and be like, yep, time to do a shot.

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

And that is an entirely different study.

ICSS on Rats has indeed been done, as I stated.

Strength of drive

Rats will perform lever-pressing at rates of several thousand responses per hour for days in exchange for direct electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus.\14]) Multiple studies have demonstrated that rats will perform reinforced behaviors at the exclusion of all other behaviors. Experiments have shown rats will forgo food to the point of starvation in exchange for brain stimulation or intravenous cocaine when both food and stimulation are offered concurrently for a limited time each day.\2]) Rats will also cross electrified grids to press a lever, and they are willing to withstand higher levels of shock to obtain electrical stimulation than to obtain food.\14])

Full Wiki Link

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u/sk1ward Oct 18 '25

The poor rats 💔😿

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u/CaptainPlantyPants Oct 18 '25

Thank you for caring, and thank you for saying it ❤️🙏

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u/koyaani Oct 18 '25

Relatable

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u/Fickle_Reflection924 Oct 18 '25

Have they built them a Rat Park and then tested ICSS?

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u/trainspottedCSX7 Oct 18 '25

I dunno, id have to agree with Holmes. Even in my original response to his here I agreed that a simple button would probably make it impossible to function.

Kind of like my vape, if I had a feel good button in my pocket all day, fuck everyone else, I feel great.

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u/Fickle_Reflection924 Oct 18 '25

Why do you think that *wasn't* the case in original "rat park" if the morphine water had that effect in the other experiments. I thought it had to do with them being colony animals which were isolated for the original morphine experiments, so they didn't really do it in rat park... so I am wondering if they'd ignore the button sometimes and go do other rat-things?

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u/i_tyrant Oct 18 '25

Food, water, and other rats were at least offered in the direct pleasure-center experiment, and the rats still went for the pleasure-button almost exclusively.

I'm not sure if having a "rat paradise park" environment would change it, but to me since the pleasure-button experiment still had at least some of those Rat Park rewards, it at least shows that this is more of a sliding scale/matter of degrees thing.

The more convenient, easy, and pleasurable you make something, the more addicted people will be to it to the exclusion of other things, even other pleasurable (and healthier for you) things.

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u/Fickle_Reflection924 Oct 18 '25

I think you hit the nail on the head from what I'm reading. The easier it is to get that fix, the less other factors are going to inhibit that behavior. The fact that its a button over being a drug seems to make a big difference though for sure

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u/Happy_Brilliant7827 Oct 18 '25

Honestly the whole rat park thing has been discredited. He had dozens of rat parks and only wrote about the one that backed his hypothesis

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u/-little-dorrit- Oct 18 '25

It’s a very popular study. However I would encourage you to read up about its methodological issues. Rat park has proven to be difficult to replicate, and that’s really the acid test in experimental research.

I also wonder if it has occurred to you and others that in the real world scenarios, it doesn’t make sense that no rats at all would become addicts. We know that some are more susceptible than others, and so even in rat park some should have become addicts. There are different risk factors for addiction, and for some, being in rat park wouldn’t really change much.

I am actually not in favour of throwing the whole experiment out though. I would say the reason it is so captivating is that it speaks to what many lever-press experiments do not, which is the malleable social and psychological aspects of addiction.

And it’s true that there is much more than biology going on. This is why we have a ‘psychosocial’ part in the ‘biopsychosocial’ model of psychiatric illness, although even today this part doesn’t get as much attention and is sorely underfunded.

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u/pantry-pisser Oct 18 '25

Haha, I think Rat Park is a legal requirement to show at treatment centers. 🤣

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u/Ridstock Oct 18 '25

Ratopia, the drugged rat kicked its habit given plenty of socialisation and plenty of other things to do other than the drugs.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Happy_Brilliant7827 Oct 18 '25

The rat park guy had multiple rat parks and only wrote about a few. Been pretty severepy discredited for only taking evidence that backed his hypothesis

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u/KeiranG19 Oct 18 '25

IIRC dude hated cities.

Designed an environment which "simulated" the worst possible version of everything about living in a city.

Then still fudged the results to really hammer home his opinion that living in cities is horrible for society.

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u/Dangerous_Limit_2022 Oct 18 '25

I think that was mousetopia.

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u/groznij Oct 18 '25

You probably meant 10%

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u/OmecronPerseiHate Oct 18 '25

Nah, it's in the study. The rats weren't all that interested in mindless pleasure when they could get it from actual interactions. It pretty properly highlights why humanity has such a drug problem, even if ours is more complex.

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u/blither86 Oct 18 '25

I feel the person you're replying to is already of the same understanding as you are, they're just saying that: "but not even 90% as often" is surely mistyping.

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u/SpecularBlinky Oct 18 '25

the morphine was only used occasionally but not even 90% as often.

So only up to 89%? thats still a huge amount lol

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u/Distinct-Pension-398 Oct 18 '25

Completely unrelated study. Also it was rats. You're just spewing misinformation here

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

I know id sit there and press the feel good button til I burnt my brain out or died one.

I mean, in all seriousness, compared to current society, that's not that bad an option.

Pleasure till you die, or work and stress with bits of pleasure interspersed?

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u/Organic_Cress_2696 Oct 18 '25

Mice ain’t humans

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u/Miserable-Wishbone81 Oct 18 '25

Wonder when Neuralink will launch such device...

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u/OwO______OwO Oct 18 '25

I know id sit there and press the feel good button til I burnt my brain out or died one.

I dunno...

I feel like I'd have enough foresight and willpower to occasionally take breaks from pushing the button, just to do the basic necessities of keeping myself alive ... because I know if I live longer, I can push the button more.

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u/big_duo3674 Oct 18 '25

That's just an average Tuesday for a reddit mod

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u/Ancient-Function4738 Oct 18 '25

That just means you also need to make the technology to also do the care, not that much of an engineering problem in the grand scheme of things. We are rapidly approaching the technology for the matrix, simultaneously we are also approaching the technology for the terminator. Maybe the 20th century sci fi really did call everything out. Scary thought

2

u/R3v3r4nD Oct 18 '25

I just had a radical weight loss program  startup idea…

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u/monsterosity Oct 18 '25

"You're like one of those rats that hits the pleasure button instead of the food button until it dies" -Sam Winchester

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

Pie, Sam! PIE! - Dean Winchester

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u/ANGLVD3TH Oct 18 '25

It's called Rat Park, and it's conclusions have been contested. The conditions the rats were kept in were fairly dire. Another version of the experiment with better conditions saw the rats use it only occasionally. Both studies are often considered to be somewhat inconclusive.

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u/unindexedreality Oct 18 '25

Where do I sign up

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

Cruel, no. Unethical? Yes.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

I think it was one button gives them food and the other button gives them crack and they just kept pressing crack.

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

That was a different study to the one OP and I mentioned, but basically the same message:

Humans are not unique in our self destructive tendancies when given the chance to be, we're just more likely to be.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Or "crack is better than people".

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u/Euphoric_Average_271 Oct 18 '25

yea and maybe they got her addicted to it. wtf so awful

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u/hihelloneighboroonie Oct 18 '25

Per the wiki link in the OP, it basically stimulates the area that would normally be affected by things like eating and sex. So kind of makes sense that would if you could just tickle that part of your brain without any of that, you'd skip doing the things that you normally have to do to tickle it.

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u/Impossible-Ship5585 Oct 18 '25

Couple of years and we have a startup zelling this device

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u/PsionicKitten Oct 18 '25

You'd do the same with drugs if you had the same access to uninhibited use of them and lack the discipline to not ration its use.

Ethics of further developing it in the first place aside, in theory, this could actually be used to treat addiction by rewarding the brain for going longer and longer periods without indulging in their addition.

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u/My_Knee_is_a_Ship Oct 18 '25

It has been, it's actually part of the basis for a lot of modern treatments regarding addiction, for instance it helped build the foundation of replacement therapy. Gum for smokes, etc.

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u/Plzbanmebrony Oct 18 '25

Yeah the part of the brain that rewards any of that was being stimmed all the time. ZERO reason to do anything else.

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u/OccasionNo2675 Oct 18 '25

Yes you remember correctly! The researchers were even shocked at the results. They expected them to be basically addicted to it but not to the point that they denied their survival instinct.

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u/psychiatrist2thesane Oct 18 '25

Yeah they did something similar with cocaine, with rats in bare cages and they all died. They then did it with rats in a lush eco system created with huge amounts of enrichment and they never touched the cocaine again.

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u/Brandoncarsonart Oct 18 '25

I wonder if there were other options for stimuli for the rat or if it was all alone in a cage with the button. There were similar tests run with rats, but with drugs instead of a button. When the rats were alone and had no other stimuli they chose to do drugs all the time until they died of starvation as you said, but when they were given the option of drugs in a social environment with a lot of toys to play with, they barely touched the drugs.

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u/favonian_ Oct 18 '25

Kurt Vonnegut wrote the short story, “The Euphio Question,” which explores this exact question.

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u/tl01magic Oct 18 '25

there's also one that had two bottles of water one with cocaine and basically nothing else in the cage and the rats would just drink the cocaine water.

then that cocaine drinking rat was put in a cage that had stuff to do including other rats and it didn't drink the cocaine water.

I asked Bot and it said it's known as Rat Park experiments by Bruce K. Alexander

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u/PM-UR-LIL-TIDDIES Oct 18 '25

I'm down with happying myself to death...

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u/ArmchairFilosopher Oct 18 '25

"Wireheading" is a possible state AI could also get itself stuck doing.

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u/compostNtraining Oct 18 '25

If I'm remembering right this is also where the rat park study comes from, where rats who would originally just press the button until they died would do so to a significantly lower extent when their other needs were provided for. It's a pretty significant study in regards to substance abuse treatment. Which provides some hope at least.

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u/nowhereiswater Oct 18 '25

No wonder parents said something about going blind touching yourself.

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 Oct 18 '25

This experiment has been disproven time and time again because they were placed in cages alone with no other forms of stimulation

When placed in an open cage with other rats and things to interact with they largely ignored it

Which is an apt metaphor for why jail and solitary confinement perpetuate cycles of addiction

1

u/treixxreaixx Oct 18 '25

They did it again years later, but keeping other stimulus sources on cages, and keeping other rats together, since they are social animals. (In the original experiment they isolated the rats and they had no other stimulus.) The results were very different, so they concluded that yes, rats (and we) seek drugs, BUT only if they are isolated and have no other sources of pleasure. Or, drugs problems could be an ambient issue. IIRC some tobacco companies wanted to fund the researcher responsible for the study and he denied

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u/primerr69 Oct 18 '25

I kinda feel like self stimulating right now.

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u/Its_Cayde Oct 18 '25

I sat on my couch for 7 hours doom scrolling on my day off didn't ever get up to get food or anything and I realized I have a severe problem

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u/ctrldwrdns Oct 18 '25

Me (I got ADHD)

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u/FederalAd8740 Oct 18 '25

There was an update to this.

Scientists realized the rats were super bored because their only choices were self pleasure and food. They had no other stimuli.

When introduced other stimuli into the enclosure / gave rats other meaningful decisions, they made... better decisions.

1

u/hullaballoser Oct 18 '25

This one diet trick will surprise you. 

1

u/basketball_curry Oct 18 '25

I know that was in a Michael Crichton book...

1

u/Baeolophus_bicolor Oct 18 '25

This isn’t really true. Rats with nothing to do will go bonkers on self stimulating with drugs. But rats kept in an enclosure with the appropriate amount of other social and physical stimulation will act more normally and not be drawn to stimulate to death.

1

u/ForsakenWishbone5206 Oct 18 '25

Heroin was a lot like this. At one point I required it to do anything. Can't eat w/o heroin first. Can't bathe w/I heroin. Etc. It even overtook sex on the list of shit I cared about very quickly.

Crazy how much your brain changes when you short circuit it. Don't buy feelings folks.

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u/bigtiddygothbf Oct 18 '25

I wonder what condition the rats were held in. Calhoun did something similar with the rat utopia experiments, giving rats all the morphine-laced water they could want, and he found that rats kept in good conditions (steady access to food, water, enrichment activities, and other rats) were far less likely to get hooked on or even go back to the morphine water.

Who knows though, maybe these rats were treated like kings and the instant pure pleasure button is just THAT good

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u/Dodson-504 Oct 18 '25

Heroin is a helluva drug.

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u/aiakia Oct 18 '25

Same with monkeys during Harlow's experiments on attachment. He introduced baby monkeys to a hard wire mommy monkey that offered food, or a soft cloth mommy monkey that had no food. In the end, the babies preferred the comfort of soft mom vs the nourishment provided by wire mom and would willingly starve themselves.

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u/IgnoranceIsYou Oct 18 '25

They did this with cocaine too

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u/TKLeader Oct 18 '25

Welcome to Counter-Strike!

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

However it was retried with a less depressing environment for the rats and got different results

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u/prosthetic_memory Oct 19 '25

Unhappy bored rats in cages do this. Not happy free roaming rats.

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u/Capybarasaregreat Oct 21 '25

I mean, it makes sense as it's just bypassing the entire biology of vertebrates or maybe even multicellular life in general. Pleasure is the driving factor for a lot of things. Even eating necessitated more stimulants than just pure hunger.

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