The same dopaminergic reward system that successfully delivered our species into the 21st century is in the process of destroying our species’ chances of making it into the 22nd century — and almost nobody wants to learn why.
The reason for this is that dopamine is the “learning drug” that teaches “dumb” animals how to survive but teaches potentially intelligent people how to be stupid.
For animals, dopamine is a healthy means to biological ends = survival and reproduction.
For human beings, scoring dopamine has been perverted into a bioillogical dead-end unto itself.
Dopamine is so powerful that it turns people into stooges who avoid thinking because thinking posses a serious threat to dopamine-triggering deceptions.
If the information triggers enough dopamine, by mollifying fears and/or elevating esteem, it will be swallowed hook, line, and sinker — even if it’s patently false, totally absurd, easy to disprove, unfathomable, or implausible.
If the information interrupts dopamine flow, because it incites fears and/or threatens esteem, they will categorically deny, reject, dismiss, and/or attack it and the source of the information — regardless of how obvious, factual, or logical the information is.
Understanding how a brain chemical manipulates behavior incites fears and threatens esteem.
That’s why even the wisest and most intelligent members of the most (potentially) sentient species on the planet aren’t interested in learning how dopamine is keeping them from wanting to learn about how they’re being manipulated by a brain chemical.
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