<story><title>We&apos;re learning more about the craving that fuels self-defeating habits</title><url>http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/the-addicted-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wallace_f</author><text>tl;dr the thesis is that addiction is a learning process of reinforcing behavior-&amp;gt;reward understanding. Targeted magnetic pulses look to be capable of altering the chemistry of the neural pathways where this understanding lives.&lt;p&gt;The article also notes how increasingly more behaviors are treated as addictions. Korea provides government subsidized gaming addiction treatment, which I think is interesting to consider if we are physically altering destructive behavioral patterns to reprogram people
 Where will the limits be? Might a workaholic be treated? What about junk food, smart phones? An adolescent with a history of getting kicks out of tormenting others? Fanatical racists or nationalists?&lt;p&gt;On another note, there are other theories about addiction to supplement this one: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>scardine</author><text>This line of ethical questioning is behind the plot of  Anthony Burgess&amp;#x27;s 1962 novel &amp;quot;A Clockwork Orange&amp;quot;. The main character Alex is subject of an experimental aversion therapy for rehabilitating criminals but the method is flawed and leads to unfair consequences for him.</text></comment>
<story><title>We&apos;re learning more about the craving that fuels self-defeating habits</title><url>http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/the-addicted-brain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wallace_f</author><text>tl;dr the thesis is that addiction is a learning process of reinforcing behavior-&amp;gt;reward understanding. Targeted magnetic pulses look to be capable of altering the chemistry of the neural pathways where this understanding lives.&lt;p&gt;The article also notes how increasingly more behaviors are treated as addictions. Korea provides government subsidized gaming addiction treatment, which I think is interesting to consider if we are physically altering destructive behavioral patterns to reprogram people
 Where will the limits be? Might a workaholic be treated? What about junk food, smart phones? An adolescent with a history of getting kicks out of tormenting others? Fanatical racists or nationalists?&lt;p&gt;On another note, there are other theories about addiction to supplement this one: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;m.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Florin_Andrei</author><text>Perhaps the line is quite blurry between addiction on one hand, and the general modifications that take place in the brain as part of the processes we call learning or even evolution on the other hand. Perhaps addiction is just those mechanisms gone awry.</text></comment>