The smart guys in the world are starting to optimize, in my opinion, influencing cash their way in exchange for non chemically induced dopamine hits. The vehicles are numerous:

Video game fake accomplishments
Social network likes
Social network requotes by important people
Banging out a perfect rant or rebuttal on social media
Echo chamber group think reinforcement.
Big, easy to find boobs

Will we ever get, as a society, to a place where such exploitations of human physiology / consciousness for profit are frowned upon?

I am afraid probably not. Ethonol use is very, very persistent. Gambling is still strong. These vehicles have been round thousands of years.

There is some hope. Opioids, nicotine are being fought, the latter dying. But, I think dopamine will always be embraced as a way to entertain and placate the masses to prevent Revolt.

Thoughts?

This reminded me of a Doctor Who episode called Gridlock. On New Earth, they had developed patches to alter your mood. They came in various different emotions. The one for Bliss was the most popular, but it a virus mutated inside, became airborne, and killed the majority of the population within 7 minutes.

I don't think using methods that increase a person's dopamine is anything new, although our understanding of chemicals like dopamine, its triggers, and effects make it much easier to efficiently target. I think you see it in all the examples you gave, but even in the seemingly harmless games we download on our phones or this winning-trumps-character view that's become so pervasive in politics. It's worrisome, but I'm not sure what can be done, outside of society being intentional about avoiding such things.

"Will we ever get, as a society, to a place where such exploitations of human physiology / consciousness for profit are frowned upon? "

Probably not, as you say. But, maybe certain types of exploitation's will be frowned upon.

Very interesting topic.

I think it would be a tactical win to simply make the concept of dopamine manipulation more prevalent in the common, every day discourse of the average person. Perhaps the same people who are easy "dopamine marks" are also more likely to be narcissistic enough or self-interested enough to be offended by the manipulation? The best analogy is the knowledge of tobacco companies and nicotine. Eventually, many people realized they were being fooled.

Great topic.

Excellent topic.

I guess with the rapid development of tech, delivery vehicles for dopamine hits will only get more prevalent.

Since, obviously, dopapine is our evolutionarily designed way of being pushed into doing things that benifitted the success of our species, doing anything to "hack" or "cheat" that system seems to be counterintuitive, and counterproductive to our well being. However, I do not see a place for government to step in with regulation or restriction.

The huge fall off of cigarette smoking in the US was not due to the government warnings on packs (just look at the blunt government warnings on tobacco products in Europe that hardly affect the usage), but rather due to a very successful educational and social campaign that made smoking no longer cool and hip.

We can turn the dopamine effect against itself and use social pressures to deter falling into the trap of hacking the reward system of your brain.

gordo97 said:

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Excellent topic.

I guess with the rapid development of tech, delivery vehicles for dopamine hits will only get more prevalent.

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Be very aware, the leverage of dopamine effect is studied and purposely optimized for applications like candy crush, video games with random equipment from loot boxes, Twitter, Facebook, etc. These companies are knowingly leveraging this effect to max out profits.

XUSCR said:

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Perhaps the same people who are easy "dopamine marks" are also more likely to be narcissistic enough or self-interested enough to be offended by the manipulation?

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Dopamine junkies are called people with "addictive personalities."

kurt vonnegut said:

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"Will we ever get, as a society, to a place where such exploitations of human physiology / consciousness for profit are frowned upon? "

Probably not, as you say. But, maybe certain types of exploitation's will be frowned upon.

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Yeah, that would be a win in my book.

Don't play candy crush, it is just hacking your dopamine to buy more micro transactions.

Im not sure you can have a sense of accomplishment without some dopamine help, so it's not bad at all, but purposefully targeting it seems really exploitive to me.

Just stay out of the fast lane.

there is definitely a "inconvenience is a sin" running around societal standards at the moment.

meanwhile dissatisfaction is at a all-time high.

Maybe there needs to be more struggles or a divorce from these dopamine quick hits.