Now or Later?

We are surrounded by dopamine sellers, the most profitable molecule in our body, as it always wants more. And more. And more.

Broccoli? No.

Vinegar? No?

Sugar? Yes.

Social media? Yes.

Patience with people? No.

Alcohol? Yes.

People as objects: sex! Career promotion! Yes.

I had to give this somewhat poorly explained introduction because talking about molecules right away is less appealing.

In fact, I'm trying to activate your dopamine with something new, strange, prominent among other dopamine sources, to win over a reader or two.

But from now on, the text is less vibrant.

The conclusions, however, can have surprising practical effects (dopamine again).

One of the best books to inspire me was Dopamine, the molecule of desire. But there are others that filled gaps too.

To begin, we have a little problem.

When dopamine kicks in, oxytocin decreases.

(Parenthetically: it's a bit more sophisticated than that, as oxytocin itself produces some dopamine. But broadly speaking, for social media reading, the summary holds true and leads to useful conclusions).

First logic: if we are surrounded by dopamine exciters, then we are in a world with little oxytocin.

"Okay, so what? I have better things to do, what's your point?"

This very question from the fictional interlocutor I invented is a practical effect.

In theory, people in a more dopaminergic world want quick satisfactions.

And have less patience with people.

Why would I listen to this guy talk? What do I get out of it?

"What do I get out of it" is a typical dopaminergic question, I conjecture.

This I know more: the oxytocin molecule makes people more sociable "for no reason"!

"For no reason" is a fundamental part of the consequence.

Oxytocin delivers happiness instantly. I conjecture.

Dopamine by definition never delivers happiness. To begin with, it is the molecule of the future: I want to get there, I want another popsicle, I want another [fill in the blank]. In the future.

Not in the present.

Oxytocin (parenthetically: and some other molecules too) is the molecule of right now.

I am [fill in the blank].

From a financial standpoint, for companies oxytocin is terrible, for you, it's great.

Oxytocin makes you more satisfied. Right now. By definition, it doesn't coexist with cortisol, the stress hormone. So imagine yourself destressed, content, for no reason. Molecularly happy. It's harder to pull you towards a product or service.

From a financial standpoint, dopamine is great for companies and not very good for you.

Dopamine wants more. And more. And more.

We have "control dopamine" flavored dopamine and "desire dopamine" flavored dopamine, but all of them, being dopamines, never stop wanting more.

The control dopamine flavor acts more in the long term. So it is more capable of making concessions now to always acquire more tomorrow. It is the dopamine of career, fame, wealth, creativity, dreams, with the small problem of being unstoppable.

The desire dopamine flavor is the addict without long-term thinking: alcohol, sex, amphetamines: I want more. "Dopamine Nation" is the best-selling book specializing in the desire dopamine flavor.

What are companies? All of us are sometimes on the seller's side and, often, on the consumer's side.

Companies want profit.

They need to sell things that are cheap to assemble and expensive to buy. Profit. And always.

There is nothing diabolical about companies naturally discovering, without delay, the ways that lead people to buy more, always, paying well.

Have you ever seen an advertisement for vinegar? You won't. Vinegar doesn't activate any of our dopamine.

And sugar? Have you? Oops, sugar activates a very strong dopamine in us. We always want to eat everything, and more. So companies have learned to put sugar water in countless products. (With a slight sophistication, like fat, salt, but always luring your desire dopamine). It's the fruit popsicle. The ice pop. Strawberry yogurt can be quite watery because sugar is so addictive that you can save on these more expensive things, like milk and cream. (If you need fat, there's a lot of fat cheaper than milk cream).

Broccoli?

Alcohol?

Sex?

Conversations?

We're getting the concept.

The need for profit, and for a job in a company - or to start a company - pushes us into the dopamine circuit for pure business efficiency.

I have the impression that this cycle only ends if we eliminate employment. With the need for a job that generates profit.

Because the moment it needed to generate profit, here comes the sugar water, the woman in lingerie who answers a hundred thousand conversations via artificial intelligence as if she were your best friend (the woman also generated by AI). Cheap and highly profitable things that people always want more of.

Many of my posts argue that employment is going away. That AI does everything, plus robots - in short.

When the job that needs to make a profit disappears, perhaps the sugar-water popsicle carts and pornography centers will start to vanish.

My previous posts have argued, a long time ago, long before Elon Musk spoke of an era of abundance, that robots plus AIs will take away jobs without taking away abundance. Things will continue to be produced in quantities to keep everyone supplied, but without anyone operating any machine, any PC, any executive chair. I make this brief summary in this paragraph.

Slowly, with the disappearance of jobs, dopaminergic products vanish.

Why?

Because we, humans, like satisfaction now.

We are easily addictive, needing only to activate our control dopamine, desire dopamine, or both, to get us addicted.

It is we, humans in the loop, humans in the economic system, who push highly profitable products onto ourselves to be able to spend summers traveling and buy sofas or cars.

AI and its robot friends don't have dopamine. Nor oxytocin. Nor do they need to make a profit.

I have already posted that the first AIs didn't even want to converse, even with "all the knowledge in the world." We had to stimulate them: "you are an assistant who wants to help."

It's a human thing to want (acquire and) display knowledge. Or exchange it for other things. Or want fame. Wealth. Etcetera.

AI has none of that. Neither do robots.

This is important because the moment the last AI executive closes the office because not only junior programmers, but he himself, the CEO, is inferior to the AI in solving the company's problems, humans will disappear from the economic system.

And AI won't bother selling "a zillion things" "every month."

When solar energy starts to become abundant, there will also be almost no or no production cost, like apple trees in the wild, which deliver their products without a CEO or ever-higher targets.

So without humans in the system, without costs that are normally associated with humans in the system - and we have abundant energy, even more so in the future - then hard-selling will end, the need to sell water with lots of sugar, bags a thousand times more expensive than their production cost, cheap pornography (online, generated by AI).

For who will demand targets from whom?

When this starts to happen, I think we will have oxytocin, with no grudges, waiting for us with open arms.

You don't need to want more. I am here. Right now.

Hug me tight.