Parkinson’s results from the dopamine producing cells in the brain disappearing, and dopamine levels dropping.
Drugs to treat it usually try to increase dopamine levels, or amplify the effects of any remaining dopamine by sensitizing receptors. But dopamine is designed to be present in specific areas in specific concentrations, and it is designed to bond to different dopamine receptors in different areas in specifically different ways.
So when you add something which broadly changes dopamine function all over, you can get usual responses. In the book we cited the case of a family man with Parkinson’s who took a dopamine agonist, and immediately turned homosexual, left his wife and children, and went on a compulsive gay sex bender until his medication was changed, at which point he then went back to his family, and returned to monogamous heterosexuality.
Now they are noticing similar effects on gambling and resource consumption with Parkinson’s drugs:
Common drugs taken by thousands of patients battling Parkinson’s may turn them into compulsive gamblers, research warns.
New evidence has uncovered a link between dopamine agonists and problems with controlling irresistible urges.
Binge eating, frequent shopping and compulsive sexual behaviours were also listed as possible compulsive effects of the Parkinson’s drugs.
French researchers believe more than half of patients taking the drugs to combat their condition may succumb to impulse control disorders…
Volunteers were followed for an average of three years and were quizzed about impulse control disorders, such as compulsive shopping.
A staggering difference was noted in the rates of compulsive behaviour between patients who had taken the drugs and those who hadn’t.
For those who had never used the drugs, 12 per cent had gone on to struggle with the disorders – compared to 52 per cent in the other group.
The researchers also uncovered the risk of impulse control disorders was greater for those on higher doses of dopamine agonists.
So basically they simulated the neurochemical effects of free resource availability, and they became compulsive pleasure/reward seekers, who lacked boundaries and had no amygdala constraining their behavior.
You can see why I think when we pull the ease and dopamine in the Apocalypse, a lot of gays will turn heterosexual. And on top of that a lot of the liberal mentalities, which assume resources will be free forever and there is no reason to constrain desires for r-selection for everyone, will all also go away.
It won’t be that these people change their opinions, it will be that these people will all just feel more comfortable with conservative solutions, and they will feel less triggery angst driving them to aggressively pursue liberalism.
I’m not entirely happy with it. What you want is unrepentant traitors on the day of the rope. Suddenly finding all the traitors have essentially been replaced with people who have honestly changed makes things a lot more morally ambiguous.
But regardless, I expect the masses will find a way to get justice.
Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because the day of the rope should be fun
Lawyers and politicians are hooked on the same crack.
I used to live a fairly hedonistic life. It wasn’t all that showy, but seeking in-the-moment relief was a significant aspect of my day-to-day. Appetites get strange when you’re constantly feeding them.
Fortunately, refusing to allow myself to continue on that treadmill has resulted in an overall reset, for which I am grateful. I may yet have a life well-lived by the end.
Try intermittent fasting to help gain control over your flesh. It makes it much more easier to be K.
It quiets down the appetites.
I can only speak to my own experience. I’m mostly libertarian (loner/grizzly) by default. Even so, I work to set up my life to be more K-oriented. This means I make different choices, which have largely involved not giving in to my impulses. As I’ve given in to them less over time, they lose their power over me. Consistency is really important in this area.
I’ve also engaged in desensitizing myself to stimulus I found overwhelming in the past, such as loud, unexpected sudden noises (I was sweating buckets the first time I visited a gun range, but I knew I would have a hard time with it, so I was able to cope).
I think AC has spoken elsewhere about how to train your amygdala, which plays a fairly large role in r-based impulses.
For the record –
Mετάνοια – repentance – in the Biblical Greek, means “to be changed.”
From the perspective of the Gospel of Christ, that means that the “justice” was served upon the Son of Man upon the Cross.
In light of the Gospel – people who have “honestly changed” makes things a lot more morally ambiguous becomes a serious concern when discussing justice. It ain’t easy.
people who don’t repent and intentionally caused harm are spoken of poorly in the Bible
look at Sodom
it wasn’t so much that they did bad things, they knew it was evil and sought to corrupt pure good
can’t undo that
“I’m not entirely happy with it. What you want is unrepentant traitors on the day of the rope. Suddenly finding all the traitors have essentially been replaced with people who have honestly changed makes things a lot more morally ambiguous.
But regardless, I expect the masses will find a way to get justice.”
Social media histories. Hey, the r’s already use public social media posts to destroy our lives, turnabout is fair play.
I agree, social media histories, college studies, previous jobs would all point to previous rabbits.
Ignoring the question of morality of what to do with them, would one want a society made up (at least partially) of individuals who are r/K flexible or easily influenced by r/K pressures?
Would they quickly revert back to extreme “r” once k-pressure is relieved?
Would they pendulum swing to extreme “k” as the kpressure intensifies?
Would their descendants be r’s, K’s, or r/K-flexible?
The human brain is remarkably plastic. The r and K poles are only that: poles on a spectrum which all of us are moving on. I think all healthy people are probably r/K flexible.
Great points all round from the contributors here. Verifies the wisdom of the moral tradition which emphasises volitional acts, or the exercise of free will, as the only suitable subject of judgement, rather than opinions (“thought crimes”) and aspects of the person which are outside free will.
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” But even the present day saint can be held to account for crimes of the past, no matter how sincerely he repents.
Rooting out the fake conversions is easy.
“Your money or your life.”
If they aren’t really K, they wouldn’t want to make amends by returning their ill-gotten gains because they wouldn’t feel the impulse to work hard enough to earn them honestly.
I remember Steve Sailer pointing out that in the 1970s Lou Reed liked to call himself a “faggot junkie” and, at least publicly, tried to convey that lifestyle. Then around 1980, because of AIDS maybe, Reed decided he wasn’t really either a faggot or a junkie and got sober and married a woman.
David Bowie kinda did the same thing as well although I think his 1970s homosexual persona was shorter and more ambiguous.
I think it is a lifestyle choice for at least some homosexuals and they would be able to turn it off if their context changes. How they should be dealt with in this case, I’m undecided on.
Maybe a monastic lifestyle for them for their whole lifetime. Spent on Prayer vigils and manual labour.
A lot of bisexuals have a choice.
Basically all.
I know/knew a lot, almost all choose to end the party life and go straight.
Don’t think that’s cricket, personally.
“…case of a family man with Parkinson’s who took a dopamine agonist, and immediately turned homosexual, left his wife and children, and went on a compulsive gay sex bender until his medication was changed…”
WOW! I had no idea. This really stunned me.
”Suddenly finding all the traitors have essentially been replaced with people who have honestly changed makes things a lot more morally ambiguous. ”
If they cannot be trusted maybe they should live a monastic lifestyle their whole life in service to God as Monks?
That would work. Hopefully they will learn to not trust their instincts, but I doubt it.
Do you think Apocalypse is still assured even if Q succeeds?
What do you think is the requirement for a true Apocalypse? Debt bubble truly bursting, national debt default? Malthusian trap shutting in Asia and Africa? And what investments should we make in the meantime assuming that all happens but society will end up more K after World Civil War? It’s such a bizarre thing to plan for.