From: R. (coyyote@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2001 - 19:08:10 MST
Check out http://www.hedweb.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Jones" <djonesxcor@qnet.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2001 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: Antidepressants: Happiness is only a drug?
> > Hugo Alves wrote:
> >
> > If you give drugs to people who are depressed, and/or talk to them to
> > make them feel better about life, in similar ways as you would give
> > your patients drugs to make their legs heal faster, or advise them to
> > do physiotherapy (psychanalysis for the body), and people treat
> > suicidal people as having a chemical disorder in their brains that
> > prevents them from being happy with life, then it seems that we are
> > left with the conclusion that our happiness is merely a self-produced
> > drug.
>
> Mild style flame: that is quite a run-on sentence. Coupled with your
> posting in html, it makes you difficult to follow.
>
> > Scientists say laughing improves your health, and general
> > optimism enhances your capacities. Joy is a drug. Nothing but a drug.
> > One that we produce ourselves, but a drug nonetheless...
>
> So. Freaking. What. Consciousness and mood are nothing magical or
> noble, they are simply one of the things a complex brain does- with the
> aid of lots of chemistry. You seem to be claiming that because mood can
> be altered by chemical inputs, mood is nothing *but* chemistry. That
> does not follow.
>
> > http://suicide.mentalhelp.net/
> >
> > I would be very happy if someone could prove me wrong, or explain this
> > in another way, or do something to make this notion of
> > happiness-as-a-mere-chemical go away. But it seems that people are
> > treating the most delicate cases of unhapiness (the suicidal) with
> > this notion of chemical disorder, which, I must say, doesn't look that
> > much encouraging... I'm asking you to look at this as the
> > transhumanists you strive to be, and not as the humane people you
> > might be.
>
> Happiness is not a mere chemical state (although gross depression can be
> alleviated chemically). Treating the symptoms works, so why obsess about
> the underpinnings?
>
> --
> Doug Jones, Rocket Engineer
> XCOR Aerospace
>
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