This is a beautiful piece of writing for its simple, personal, but
deep question - what drives us? And if we can control that, what does
it mean for our sense of self and purpose to fill our lives? Are we
all slaves of appetite?
Today I think so. But just putting it out there; in ascetic and stoic
periods of Greek and post-classical history, and also throughout all
of Buddhism, it's a big deal to put the appetites aside. Is it
possible we changed biologically, perhaps due to modern farming
methods?
There is an ongoing maintenance required to maintain the new hormonal equilibrium. I expect the next step is to research and refine the use of CRISPR and genetic modifications to make the change stick without ongoing drug doses.
Yes, at the moment. However, new research on how to reset brain's thermostat (or optimal weight), is going on. Right now, these drugs's half life is 7 days (inject once a week). How about finding drugs whose half life is 30 days, 6 months, a year(inject once a month, 6 months, or a year)? Amgen is testing AMG 133 (inject once a year) right now: https://www.amgen.com/newsroom/press-releases/2022/12/amgen-...
Overstatement. I get that it’s a profound change by this is also what someone manic would write and the author admits that is a side effect.
While it is not easy a very important aspect of getting over vices is recognizing the overwhelming desire and autopilot actions and saying no to them. Losing weight, in my own efforts, I’ve felt this. I also felt the desires gently go away after some time… and then come back after some carelessness. What I eat seems to have long term effects on how I want to eat with a period of weeks to months to change those desires in a positive way… but days to lose progress.
I can say no to desires pretty easily, not everybody can. I definitely don’t always.
It’s cool hearing this story in the first person. The author raises some good philosophical questions. Its fascinating that hunger can be modulated by targeting relatively few signaling molecules. I don’t know how many other ‘vices’ are as straightforward to modulate, but it’s an interesting question.
> How long is it before there’s an injection for your appetites, your vices? Maybe they’re not as visible as mine. Would you self-administer a weekly anti-avarice shot? Can Big Pharma cure your sloth, lust, wrath, envy, pride? Is this how humanity fixes climate change—by injecting harmony, instead of hoping for it at Davos? Certainly my carbon footprint is much smaller these days. Are we going to get our smartest scientists together, examine the hormonal pathways, and finally produce a cure for billionaires?
Reminds me of do androids dream of electric sheep. There is a mood altering machine that they use throughout the day, which brings up the fun question: “who is the actual person behind the machine? Do they even remember anymore?”
For some reason, my mind made an association between this article and the one about luck appeared a couple of days ago [0].
I'm still processing everything and this can be a big leap in reasoning, but I can't help but feel that we are just slaves. Slave of our biology, chemistry... . The amount of hardship this man went through to lose weight, the mental burden. It was pure luck that he found a working drug. And it was completely random that he got a body that cannot regulate "normally" the appetite.
I had almost the same experience as the author but for my sex drive, yay medication side effects. It is such a weird feeling to just never be horny / never lust. I didn’t miss it at all, hell I couldn’t miss it because I didn’t even notice it was gone. For me it really was that my sex drive was entirely a fiction made up by my lizard brain. Sex was physically just as pleasurable but just like water thirst makes it hit completely different. By comparison other things brought me a lot more joy and all the brain space occupied by that desire was free.
So to the author’s point you can absolutely cure lust and I think in an objective sense doing so makes your life better, at least on paper. I really can’t decide if I’m happier with or without it.
Plato, when he was 80 years old, was asked by his students how it felt to have no sexual desire. He supposedly said, "Like being allowed to dismount from a wild horse."
24 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 79.9 ms ] threadO.K. to pep up your language centers?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/escape-from-sp...
While it is not easy a very important aspect of getting over vices is recognizing the overwhelming desire and autopilot actions and saying no to them. Losing weight, in my own efforts, I’ve felt this. I also felt the desires gently go away after some time… and then come back after some carelessness. What I eat seems to have long term effects on how I want to eat with a period of weeks to months to change those desires in a positive way… but days to lose progress.
I can say no to desires pretty easily, not everybody can. I definitely don’t always.
Food for thought :)
In convenient single servings!
I'm still processing everything and this can be a big leap in reasoning, but I can't help but feel that we are just slaves. Slave of our biology, chemistry... . The amount of hardship this man went through to lose weight, the mental burden. It was pure luck that he found a working drug. And it was completely random that he got a body that cannot regulate "normally" the appetite.
0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34609167
So to the author’s point you can absolutely cure lust and I think in an objective sense doing so makes your life better, at least on paper. I really can’t decide if I’m happier with or without it.