The Acceleration of Addictiveness (2010)

The propensity for tribal identity probably is as well.

The exact tribe doesn't matter much (we've seen European far right activists jump ship to ISIS). Hooliganism also proves that the matter at hand doesn't have to be serious for people to kill each other.

It's a tricky one to tackle because stigmatization stimulates identity. Maybe promoting a strong personal identity could help.

It works for the other big sins - envy, lust, pride, and so on. Algorithms are really good at feeding these.

I just saw a tweet in my timeline starting with "if you want to get FUCKING FURIOUS at" and the same thoughts popped. The issue that tweet is about is certainly a terrible thing that should be solved... but no, I do not want to get fucking furious, nobody should WANT to.

Angry thought germs spread like nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc

Its also becase previously nice guy realizes that anger solves more problems than anything else in the world.

Sometimes I worry that this is because people need to feel emotions, and anger is easy to feed in modern society. It's gratifying for all the wrong reasons. We should be feeding ourselves with other emotions, but anger is cheap, practically free, and requires no intimacy with another person. It makes people feel purpose, a need to resolve something, intense focus. It's a little upsetting to think about, but I'm not sure if I'm framing it differently than it really is. Maybe people have always loved to get pissed off and it's not a product of increasing social isolation causing an increasing need to feel something.

I feel like there is a sort of dominance game at work, not necessarily just with anger but other moods too. I've noticed if someone is angry or depressed, he/she will try to bring everyone around them "down to their level" (and if you're immune, you'll be ignored). I might just be sensitive to it now since I've been thinking about this for a while, but sighing or other attention-seeking behaviors (whistling triggers me) are huge tips that someone is trying to take over and shift the mood. Often people do it subconsciously, and others around them react subconsciously as well.

"OMG", you just triggered an epiphany in the sense that you gave a new perspective on what i've observed in a family member. Great description, and exactly fits the observation.

How hard are the drugs taken in Singapore then?

That seems predicated on the assumption that 1) prohibition efforts are inherently flawed and 2) that a cultural desire to consume hard drugs is inevitable.

For example, many East Asian countries have serious punishments for drug trafficking and also have less general cultural acceptance of illegal drug use. As far as I know, there aren’t nearly as many drug problems there as compared to the west.

I think it's less about an arc of history and more of an extrapolation. We use technology to advance things that benefit us. Getting people addicted to things benefits the people who sell those things. Hence, they will use technology to advance addictiveness. Since technology advances exponentially, addictiveness will then also advance exponentially. We are hitting the fat part of the technology curve, so maybe the fat part of the addictiveness curve is right behind it.

I think pg always tries to make things a part of the big plan or a big arc. Can't blame him - it's easier to reason about things when they fit together, and stringing them up as a part of a trend/arc/pursuit-of-telos works very well for that. It might even be correct sometimes. Despite the apparent bias it's still quality writing and often generates quality discussions.

I also have to say that most people in our industry cannot generalize at all; pg is one of only two people I know who can do the job without botching it. To the extent that we want to generalize anything at all, however well, we have nearly no one else to look at.

Ketamine has been around, and used recreationally, since far before 2010. The only thing that's new is using it as a highly effective treatment for depression.

From Ketamine for Treatment Resistant Depression (2016):

The findings provided by the Deputy Administrator of the DEA (Marshall 1999) found that:

1. Ketamine has less potential for abuse than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II

2. Ketamine has currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States

3. Abuse of ketamine may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence

It has less potential for abuse than THC, Adderall, and Ritalin.

I'd be more concerned about fentanyl and it's derivatives than something like THC or ketamine, which aren't nearly as addictive or have the same potential for physically dependency.

Fentanyl isn't anything new, but it's cheap and extremely potent. Doses are measured in the microgram range, because of that and it's incredibly short high, it's the number 1 cause of overdose for opioid users. It has contributed a lot to our current opioid epidemic.

> Typical writing of someone so divorced from the real world.

eh? is that a dig at pg?

> This is what, to me, separates the so-so addictions like running from the junkies who will commit violence to avoid withdrawal. There is enough evidence that stuff like gaming, gambling, social media are activating these rewards centers and leading to structural changes in the brain.

This is central to the concept of diagnosing addiction, as well as the colloquial use: it has to be a compulsive behavior whose use negatively and substantially affects your life, which is why running and normal caffeine use don't usually qualify.

I doubt that pg is unaware of this, or indeed anyone who's familiar with the context of addiction, and it's a bizarre leap to say that he's missing it due to being detached from the real world just because he chooses not to focus on it.