I ' m fairly sure it just means we get a cool new way to bind carbon and silicon <| sep |> Would you agree that heart disease is a real thing ? Because tachycardia is caused by heart disease , where your heart begins pumping too much blood through your body . I would argue this runs counter to your claim that addiction isn ' t a disease because it ' s the brain an organ doing what is usually does but to a harmful level . Now of the 4 definitions listed above , only 1 , 2 , and 4 , are really scientific , 3 is more of a common usage definition . I ' m failing to see how this even remotely invalidates the usage . Why does a definition have to be scientific to be accurate ? The definitions of limbs on dictionary . com are blunt , pretty much just saying where a limb is and not going so much into function , makeup , or structure . Does this mean we shouldn ' t consider a dog ' s tail a limb because it isn ' t scientific ? And what in your view actually counts as scientific ? What are the requirements ? Latin words ? Functions ? Long paragraphs ? If you take that definition of addiction and remove the causes problems qualifier in its second halfI mean yeah , lots of things ' definitions change when I take out stuff . The definition of murder changes if I take out the part about killing . I don ' t want to come off cross but this argument is completely nonsensical and asks us to just ignore things to agree with you . To be honest I think having this in your post has undermined your entire argument and tells me you saw the answer but chose to just ignore it . Addiction is flooding your brain with dopamine to an uncontrollable point that it has ceased regular , healthy function . Much in the same way cancer is the division of cells in your body to the point it becomes uncontrollable and harmful . Disease is about our understanding of how the human body is supposed to operate , and recognizing when something has altered that to a recognizably harmful degree .