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Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics
DrLudicrous writes "According to a recent Reuters article, scientists have been able to cause monkeys to stop procrastinating by blocking the development of a dopamine receptor in the brain. The net result- the monkeys turned into workaholics. An article has appeared in the online version of Nature. Apparently, monkeys, just like human beings, tend to slack off on tasks until the very last minute. They become quite adept at judging how long they have till they absolutely must complete these tasks. The original article appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. An additional blurb appears here courtesty of Science Blog." NIH has a press release.
Cue all the parents of kids with "ADD" to start another Ritalin trend. When are people going to learn that, to some extent, we are the way we are. People learn differently from each other. People work differently from each other. Just because one person doesn't like to sit down and read from a textbook for two hours straight doesn't make him a deviant in need of drug (or gene) therapy, it means that he doesn't learn that way. While I wouldn't consider myself a slacker, I also wouldn't consider myself a workaholic, but the contributions that I make around my office are valuable because they are different from the contributions of those around me, and one reason for that difference is that I think and work differently. If everyone thought and learned the same way, as the current generation of attitude-changing psychiatrists is attempting to cause, we'd have a nation of mindless, workaholic zombies with few differences between one person and another.
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The reason the monkeys worked harder was that they could no longer judge how much work had to be done before they got a reward. Essentially, they became unable to estimate how long the work would take to complete. I don't think this has any practical application for humans. It's just helpful for understanding existing human mental disorders.
If it wasn't for procrastination, would there even be a slashdot? I mean, how many of you out there are at work right now reading this when you really should be doing something else... Just throwing that into the mix.
Your mammas flamebait.
I have read the article and I think the headline is a bit misleading. Blocking the dopamine made the monkeys pull the lever quicker because they couldn't make decisions properly. It didn't motivate them or make them super-workers, it just messed with how they think so they wouldn't hesitate to pull a lever.
Later on in the article, it mentions how people with mental disorders cannot associate work with reward. It goes on to say that people with mania will often work very hard to a futile reward. Sort of like monkeys who pull levers all day.
In other words, have they created manic monkeys?
Anyone read The Speed of Dark ? It's a good book (although it has a depressing ending, IMO). Oh, and just to stay on topic... one of the central plots in the book is an experimental treatment to cure Autism, and to make people workaholics.
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Wage slave that works as little as possible, putting off things to the last possible moment: Slacker.
Corporation that uses just in time logistics, so that it doesn't have to lease warehouse space, corporation that produces just enough to meet demand: A winner that everyone, shareholders and pundits, raves about.
Conclusion: It sucks to be a wage slave.
Last fall when I was hallucinating and paranoid because of my schizoaffective disorder, I was completely unable to focus on my work for several months, and got absolutely nothing done.
The psychiatrist I saw about it said that I had psychotic breakthrough symptoms, and this would make it difficult to concentrate. Such symptoms are the result of too much dopamine activity in the brain.
My dose was raised from 3 mg a day to 5, and after a few weeks of time off to recover, I was able to start working productively again.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
its not that people are lazy, people just don't like to work when they can play.
That seems to be exactly what this is about though. The work *is* the reward (feels good to get things done) when this D2 receptor gets zapped by their little DNA injection. A more difficult job and longer hours sounds like hell, but maybe in this altered state you'd actually enjoy that and find the challenge welcome.
I'll be the first to say that's no way to live, but many people are forced into that lifestyle anyway, so perhaps they can be helped to at least enjoy it without splattering their brains all over their office wall.
Hypthetical situation: I am a chronic procrastinator. I find that this is something that I don't particularly like about myself, and I'd like to change it, especially since I have a deadline rushing up, ready to swoop past if I don't get my doomaflotchy prototype ready before the big convention.
So here's the question: If I have so much trouble staying on-task that I can't finish a major project on which my reputation, credibility, and livlihood depend, when am I going to get around to heading to the nearest facility to offer this gene-therapy treatment? Even if it was in a pill form, it would probably be prescription only, and even if it was OTC, I'd still have to go to the pharmacy.
So, it seems likely that, if this ever sees the light of day in humans, we'll be getting a lot of instances of "Quick, I need that DontputitoffXL treatment, and I need it by 3:30 today!"
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
Because Our Techno-Dystopia Isn't Hellish Enough.
How long 'til this becomes mandatory for employment? Or citizenship?
Me? Pessimistic? Nah.
The reward is for those at the top of economic food chain, at least in capitalism. We've more than doubled our productivity since the 1960's. Are people working half as long? no. This is a byproduct of our economic system, if you don't like it, then you need to consider changing it.
BTW, I agree with you, it is a sham that no matter how much more productive we are, it just ends up leading to more abuse. Of course, being a better slave never made anyone free.
Good reply. Although Genetics is often the case people use when thinking about this subject, there are already drugs on the market that are safe but prescribed for medical conditions that are known to benefit regular people as well.
A good example that many college students know is Ritalin (Methylphenidate ). I'm just using this as an example, there are others. Ritalin is fairly safe (you can argue this point, but the drug has been on the market for a LONG time). It's well documented that Methylphenidate improves the ability of people WITHOUT ADHD as well as people with the condition.
There is a reason that college students have tried to get hold of it before taking tests!
Drug manufacturers have the expertise and knowledge to create substances (non genetic altering substances) that have a variety of effects that are safe.
But none of them are marketed to people without illness. Why not? Is there some FDA rule that says that a drug designed to improve attention span MUST be only used by people with attention span difficulty?
When will all kids by default be forced to take this pill so they can do their homework? How long before this pill is forced on you by your employers?
It will happen in the exact same way as kids, employees and athletes are forced to take other pills that enhance your strength, wits or ability to go on without sleeping. That is, it won't happen generally, but in some sectors it will be rather common. And it will be partly due to the free will of the individual and partly because he is forced or tricked in to using these pills.
The monkey/minute ratio is now an industry-recognized performance metric. I put it on all of my performance reviews for my employees. It's even in my sig.
-- I'd say your post was about 3 monkeys, 18 minutes.
Is working harder necessarily a better thing?
How many (good) programmers have seen over-zealous newbies write a huge amount of code because they didn't stop, think, and then implement.
Usually being lazy helps me find the fastest possible way to my destination. And usually it's the most(or one of the most) efficient solution too.
To programmers, "working" is more about pondering the problem than doing the implementation.
If we all were super-hard-working people, would we still care about re-use when designing a system? Heck, why have functions, you can just re-type the code when you need it?!
I believe you have a saying: "Work smarter, not harder."
This site is already testing the theory.
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society - M. Twain
If you're the government, it's the ideal outcome. The solution is you raise taxes (the economy's growing, and your workers aren't working for rewards, so they can "afford" the cost), to hire more (drugged-up) maniacal teachers, to teach the unhappy (drugged-up) students, and of course, subsidize the pharmaceutical companies producing the stuff. A slave army 300,000,000 strong!
> Those of us/you who are already wealthy and have $$ in the market, might see a stock bump. Meanwhile, 15% of the workforce is laid off.
The government subsidizes the drug for the unemployed, and makes taking it a precondition of receiving welfare. The 15% will find something to do (even if it's just staying at home to farm Everquest loot 23 hours a day and eBaying it for a net of about $5/hour).
> Now imagine what it's going to be like to be on this drug. You don't mind working 10 hours per day, cause your brain chemistry is in tune with that. Meanwhile, your home life goes to utter shit. Your spouse hates you. Your kids stop loving you.
Your kids are working 10 hours a day in school, and don't mind, because their brain chemistry is also in tune with that.
And what the fuck is your spouse doing at home when she could be taking the drug and working 10 hours a day too?
She'll need to be working, especially with the taxes we'll all be paying for the army of zombified cops to hammer down on the defectives who react poorly to the drug.
From the standpoint of any government from Moscow to Beijing to Washington, this is a big win.
> This might have an application, somewhere. But we should enact legislation NOWNOW NOW!!! to ensure that the use of this (or similar) drugs can NEVER become mandatory or even suggested.
I agree. Because if Congress passes a law that says "Monkeydrug must NEVER become mandatory", all we need is to have a rider bill two years from now (when all the fuss has died down) that says "Remove the word NEVER from section 1924.86, paragraph (c), and inserts the word "after", followed by a date [two years from now plus a week] after the word "Mandatory".
For me, procrastination seems related to anxiety in some way. I know that I should start doing a task now, but I don't feel like it. Why don't I feel like it? Because thinking about starting the task puts me on edge. Maybe I'm afraid that there will be difficulties, or that something will go wrong, or that it will take longer than I think, or that the results will be disappointing (to me or - worse - to someone else). Could the same kind of "edginess" over initiating something be a key stage of motivation in some people, but inhibitory to others?
Why don't they use some of their intelligence to find out why people slack in the first place.
Some people are depressed, don't like the job that they are doing, etc. That is reality, not a pill that will "magically" get them do "work".
They forget the problem is not that all employees are lazy, if they care to really put an effort into some research or get grants from someone with intelligence they could find out that you must hire the right people for the job.
This kinda reminds me of that saying "When you have a hammer all your problems look like a nail".
Lastly did they ever think that the reason people are slacking is because they don't know what they are doing? How will turbo charging them help?
To me this sounds like a goverment sponsored narcotic. Cocaine will deliver some of the same results and we look down as we should on users / abusers of these drugs but since this is 'researched' does this open the door to other narcotics being ok? Are abusers just merely people who want to get ahead in life and should get tax breaks for thier habbit?
Of course have they realized that this will not make anyone do the work *they* want them to do. It will just make them consentrate on what the user feels like doing. Sounds sick to me where do you think it could go from here?
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
"begs the question", while probably not grammaticaly correct, has come into modern popular use. The grandparent used the phrase correctly (by modern standards) in his comment.
Gene therapy turns monkeys into workaholics. This begs the question: can a million workaholic monkeys come up with a cure for cancer more quickly than the slacker human doctors?
I don't see what is wrong with using that phrase. I think most people (excluding grammar Nazis) would find it acceptable in modern everyday use.