Tag: addiction

Impact Lab > addiction
future predictions, future report, future scenario, future tech

The Reality Forge: When Your Mind Becomes the Ultimate Experience Engine

By Futurist Thomas Frey

Ray Bradbury gave us “The Veldt.” Star Trek gave us the holodeck. Both imagined immersive virtual environments where the line between real and simulated blurred. But neither pushed the concept to its logical, terrifying, exhilarating extreme.

What if we could dial experience itself? Not just visual and audio simulation, but complete sensory and neurological control. Pain from 0-10. Pleasure from 0-10. Healing from 0-10. What if your brain could be convinced so completely that something is real that it responds as if it were—curing disease, experiencing transcendent pleasure, or dying from simulated torture?

I’m proposing we will build exactly this: The Reality Forge—a device that doesn’t just simulate reality but forges it directly in your brain, making your mind the ultimate experience engine. And once we build it, nothing about human civilization will be the same.

Continue reading… “The Reality Forge: When Your Mind Becomes the Ultimate Experience Engine”
Big Problems, Healthcare, Hot Issues, Medicine

This is why Xanax is blowing up in America

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From the explosion of ADHD meds to the economic crisis to the Trump presidency, this dangerous trend didn’t come out of nowhere.

It’s not exactly breaking news that Xanax has been having something of a moment. Famous musicians, at least until prominent voices like Lil Xan (yes, even him!) and Chance the Rapper began swearing off the stuff, have long been inclined to hype it. And Xanny bars have been touted across social media and even in old-school graffiti for some time now. The number of adults prescribed drugs in the class that includes Xanax (alprazolam)—known as benzodiazepines—rose by 67 percent between 1996 and 2013. Over the same period, the amount of these drugs that was actually dispensed more than tripled, according to a 2016 study.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Human Behavior

This one shocking factor can make you 4600 percent more likely to become an addict

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It was discovered quite by accident – in part of a study of a totally different subject.

One of my earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of my relatives, and not being able to. As I got older, I understood why. We had addiction in my family. And as I watched some of my other close relatives become addicts, I asked myself several questions, but one in particular seemed haunting and insistent: why does addiction so often run in families? Why does it seem to pass from mother to daughter, from father to son, as though it were some dark genetic twist?

Continue reading… “This one shocking factor can make you 4600 percent more likely to become an addict”

Bitcoin, Healthcare, Human Behavior

People are so obsessed with trading cryptocurrencies that a hospital just launched a program to treat addictive behavior

Scottish addiction treatment center Castle Craig Hospital has launched a program geared to help people who are addicted to buying and selling cryptocurrencies online.

In its online guide, the hospital describes the addictive behavior as similar to that of other online addictions, and offers practical advice as well as longterm therapeutic treatments.

Since bitcoin first appeared nearly a decade ago, cryptocurrencies have transformed internet culture. Online, crypto traders and blockchain enthusiasts eagerly swap anecdotes regarding market speculation and upcoming token offerings, and the crypto culture has spilled out into the world at large as well, inspiring thousands of summits, meet-up groups, and conferences worldwide.

Continue reading… “People are so obsessed with trading cryptocurrencies that a hospital just launched a program to treat addictive behavior”

Analysis, Brain, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

This is your brain on a smartphone

iPhone-Junkie

A mobile junkie.

When is the last time you powered your smartphone all the way down?  Try turning it all the way off now. Take your phone out and turn it off (note: this is not advised if you are reading this on your mobile. In this case you are probably too far gone). Fair warning, you will experience a short stint of anxiety and emptiness. These mobile withdrawals are unpleasant (and slightly pathetic) but the sobering and liberating experience is worth more than your 25th snapchat today.

 

 

Continue reading… “This is your brain on a smartphone”

Analysis, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

84% of Americans say they couldn’t go a single day without their smartphone

We’re addicted to our phones.

Chances are you’re addicted to your mobile device if you are reading this article. The question is, just how addicted are you? Forty percent of iPhone users would rather not bathe than give up their precious mobile devices, according to research compiled by gadget insurance service Protect Your Bubble. (Infographic)

 

 

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Analysis, Business, Science & Technology News

What are startup junkies really addicted to?

When you think about the term “startup junkie”, what comes to mind?  “Junkie” is someone who has some kind of addiction but “startups” aren’t a clearly defined drug that you buy on the corner.  Startups aren’t really a definable thing at all.  They are more like a messy, unpredictable process.  Are startup junkies addicted to uncertain processes and outcome?  Most startup junkies are actually addicted to something other than the difficult task of starting and growing a profitable business.

 

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Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

In Search of the Next Great Addiction

Is the cool glow of a smartphone the sure sign of an addict?

What exactly do you do here, I’ve been meaning to ask. Because I’m the producer, right? I cook. But from what I can tell, you are just a drug addict! You are a pathetic junkie too stupid to understand and follow simple rudimentary instructions!” – – Walter White from the hit TV show “Breaking Bad.”

Futurist Thomas Frey: Addiction is a word seething with negative connotations. It implies that someone is out of control with their life, making bad decisions with their money, and placing everyone around them at risk.

Continue reading… “In Search of the Next Great Addiction”

Analysis, Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Are we addicted to our gadgets?

“The lure of constant stimulation — the pervasive demand of pings, rings and updates — is creating a profound physical craving.”

The New York Times has come out with another story about technology addiction. The Times‘ Matt Richtel talked with a some people in Silicon Valley who think we need to step away from our devices.  The basic argument is this:

Continue reading… “Are we addicted to our gadgets?”

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