Psychoactive mind control

[parallaxicality]

Already I've been hearing about investigations into the brain/mind interface, and how in the future not only such things as sexual orientation or sociopathy but even political affiliation or shopping preference could be mapped neurally. Given that, it's only a matter of time before we develop the technology to fine tune and alter human emotions and thoughts on a chemical level. I can see a future, perhaps not even a distant one, where politics, consumer choice, social circle and intro- and extroversion are either decided at birth or, even more terrifying, delivered in a pill. How could we possibly regulate such a market? You think the war on drugs is hard? Wait until the war on "Shop At Wal-Mart" pills. Can you imagine if someone invented a love potion that actually worked? Human civilisation would end within a year. Given that such a reality is at least conceivable, how could we possibly deal with the consequences?

[Ara Pacis]

If you don't know how it will work, how can you design regulations for it?

We understand that lightspeed is a constant, but that doesn't help us break it. What makes you think we will be able to program humans like that even if we know how the brain works? It seems to me that brainwashing or education are just as effective, or more so, and less expensive.

[Jens]

Given that, it's only a matter of time before we develop the technology to fine tune and alter human emotions and thoughts on a chemical level. I can see a future, perhaps not even a distant one, where politics, consumer choice, social circle and intro- and extroversion are either decided at birth or, even more terrifying, delivered in a pill.

To be honest, I think we already are in such an age. Maybe "fine tune" is an overstatement, but we definitely have drugs, and have long had drugs, that can tune human emotions. Think about alcohol and introversion/extroversion. And caffeine and concentration. I don't think there's anything that's going to be different, just the same old dilemmas that we experience now, just maybe more of them.

[Hlafordlaes]

I'm a little more concerned about how wealth-restricted access to cutting-edge bioengineering, from pre-cradle to late grave, may form a vicious positive feedback loop. It's already that way somewhat with education (cultural engineering?).

[HenrikOlsen]

Theres a long way from measuring something to altering it to taste.

[grapes]

I can see a future, perhaps not even a distant one, where politics, consumer choice, social circle and intro- and extroversion are either decided at birth or, even more terrifying, delivered in a pill.

I'm fascinated by the "social circle in a pill", I'd like to hear more about how that might work.

[HenrikOlsen]

We might even cure people of irrational beliefs, wouldn't that be wonderful?

[swampyankee]

We might even cure people of irrational beliefs, wouldn't that be wonderful?

Define "irrational beliefs." I suspect that some of the people who do the defining would include something like "disbelief in the infallibility of authority" as an irrational belief to be cured. The major worry with something like that is who gets to define an irrational vs rational belief.

[Ara Pacis]

I'm fascinated by the "social circle in a pill", I'd like to hear more about how that might work.

Google+, what a pill.

[HenrikOlsen]

Define "irrational beliefs." I suspect that some of the people who do the defining would include something like "disbelief in the infallibility of authority" as an irrational belief to be cured. The major worry with something like that is who gets to define an irrational vs rational belief.

I'm trying very hard to stay away from banned subjects, I can easily come up with a list of things various groups would want "cured" and I have the thing that makes those groups on my personal list of things I'd like to see cured and that's as far as I'll go here.
Ask in PM if this doesn't give enough clues to what I mean.

[Ara Pacis]

I'm trying very hard to stay away from banned subjects, I can easily come up with a list of things various groups would want "cured" and I have the thing that makes those groups on my personal list of things I'd like to see cured and that's as far as I'll go here.
Ask in PM if this doesn't give enough clues to what I mean.

Just remind then that we've always been at war with Eastasia.

[eburacum45]

Except that you wouldn't be able to make 'shop at Walmart' pills. You can't include specific information in a psychoactive agent, in any useful way I can imagine. It may be possible to induce a general desire to 'go shopping' or purchase things', but even that seems doubtful; a psychoactive agent would probably act on a more basic level, such as 'go out and acquire something' or even 'a generalized feeling of unfulfilled need which might be reduced by retail therapy'. You would need to follow up such a generalized agent with a more specific one, making sure that someone with an 'induced desire to shop' sees an advert for Walmart (or whichever company you wish to promote) while in that 'heightened retail need' mood. If (by accident) the victim is targeted by advertising from a rival chain then the psychoactive agent may attract them towards that advertised service, defeating the object of the exercise.

Psychoactive agents are a blunt instrument, and to be honest, most advertising and other propaganda can be resisted by the proper use of skepticism. However it may be the case that psychoactive agents could affect a victim's level of skepticism in one way or another, making them at least somewhat more susceptible to advertising and other memetic influences.

[ravens_cry]

So far, yes. But if the brain can do something, there is probably a way of repeating it under controlled circumstances.
How I do not know, when I do not know, but I don't doubt there is a way to do it.

[Jens]

So far, yes. But if the brain can do something, there is probably a way of repeating it under controlled circumstances.

eburacum45's point was that you can't make a pill to make people like Walmart's. It's easy to understand why: a person say from another country, who has never seen or heard of Walmart, would not have any feeling toward it. Because our brain doesn't have any specific Walmart pathway that has developed through evolution. What we have is a pathway somehow that makes us get a warm cozy feeling about certain places, for whatever reason. And we have to experience being in that place to get the feeling. We never feel nostalgia toward a person or place that we've never encountered. So for example, you could perhaps give a pill to a person while they are at Walmart, that would make them feel nostalgia to the place and want to come back, a sort of imprinting if you want. But you could never have a pill for liking Walmart specifically, because according to your argument, "if the brain can do something," actually the brain cannot do that itself. The brain cannot create a good feeling about Walmart in a person who has never heard of Walmart in the first place.

[ravens_cry]

Memory is stored somehow, and it is almost certainly physical in nature. It is therefore conceivable that a memory could be artificially created.
For a likely crude example, imagine a pill that creates a feeling of desire associated a certain colour scheme and then a brand trademarks that colour scheme.
Subtle, yet potentially effective.
A lot of brand identity is trying to create these kinds of association without the pill.