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Genetic Reason for Your Gadget Habit
You can't help it if you need to get the latest gadgets. Well... perhaps it's not quite such a serious medical affliction, but scientists have found a genetic basis for some folks' burning desire to have the latest and greatest. There's even a name for it - neophilia. Apparently, some of us have elevated levels of a cellular enzyme, monoamine oxidase A, and are more in need of stimulation from new things.
Neophilia is wanting new things...
as opposed to Necrophilia, which is wanting things that aren't really 'fresh' anymore.
... do levels of this chemical spike when women enter their closets?
So now geeks join the culture of victimhood - "it's not my fault, its my [genes|society|enviroment]!". Congratulations on finally joining the mainstream!
The scientific details are unimportant. The real question is, as it's not my fault, who can I sue over this?
Is there a way to cut the levels of this enzyme? I need to get my wife to stop
filling my house with crap from wal-mart and sams club. It isn't gadgets, but
I imagine that the need for new stuff would be filled via other means for
people that don't like electronics.
you had neophilia and amnesia at the same time. Imagine the pleasure of discovering your new right hand every 20 seconds.
Apparently, some of us have elevated levels of a cellular enzyme, monoamine oxidase A, and are more in need of stimulation from new things.
I keep telling my girlfriend that, but she just won't go for it.
This is a plot to get us all to buy The Matrix: Revolutions.
(end of post)
I have a strange urge to possess a gadget that can measure the level of this "gadget disease" in people.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Before it was, tell all the parents their child has ADD/ADHD and that's why he/she wont sit still or pay attention in class. Now doctors will be saying that the kids need all this new stuff and throw temper tantrums because of their genetically elevated monoamine oxidase A and not that they are spoiled/greedy/etc.
I wonder if people with elevated levels of monoamine oxidase A are more inclined to engage in infidelity, citing the need for a variety of partners.
I wonder whether I suffer from neophilia too when I fall in love with a new girl each week...
I guess the opposite would be retrophilia - the love of buying other people's junk off eBay, while dreaming of hitting the jackpot on Antiques Roadshow, or browsing antique shops while dreaming of making a fortune on eBay.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Mouse labs that wanted the "New Cheese - Extra Holes" or chose the new "Super mouse Wheel" over the plain one, presents this gene, thus humans who present this specific gene suffer from Neophilia!
Omgili - Find out what people are saying.
Biologists have traced this enzyme all the way back to the stone age, when people who had it would always need to have the latest and greatest club and stone hammer.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Can anyone else see this as a response to infidelity:
"I had to cheat on you. I have an elevated amount of monoamine oxidase A, and I needed someone new."
Response: "I don't care. I'm still taking half your crap."
the popularity of pr0n.... I mean 99% of the stuff is 99% the same except for the haircut or the camera angle... but for a genetic addiction to new, apparently the grass is ALWAYS greener.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
When I was younger I would have fit the neophilia profile. I had to have the latest video game system and all of the games, the latest stereo, latest everything. I've noticed that over the past 10 years or so I've become less interested in technology in general. Mind you I'm still heavily engrossed in technology every day (I'm a programmer), but I'm finding that I just don't care anymore. Maybe its just the stress of it all, I don't know. Has anyone else experienced this?
I hate to live in a world where every human trait sounds like a disease. If we could cure our need for new, and turn boredom into ever-lasting happiness; how long before we find a cure at being human?
cut this signatures madness. stop reading them now!
to reduce *every* human behavior to materialistic causes is just another dehumanizing tendency of the technological society.
Yes, absolutely.
some of us were born to be dorks.
Tell us something we didn't know.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The problem lies in the Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, drugs designed to block degradation of the enzyme. These drugs interact with many foods, including beer, so they are of little clinical utility to the affected slashdotter.
It would have been nice to get a bit more detail. Much of the time, these are studies with 7 people and whose discussion tends towardsd over arching claims (in hopes of more grants). I have no idea if this research is of any decent scientific quality or not.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
That's why I program and run Linux.
I can continually put new stuff on my old hardware
and keep my money from those that would create
monopolies to take it away.
For those who want to see the abstract for the original paper that this news article is written about, check out the following link. Of course, to actually see the paper, you need to sign up as a guest, and pay lots of money to the people who deal with Psychiatric Genetics.
p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=16538181
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=
and are more in need of stimulation from new things.
So that's why she left me and the kids for that new guy. And to think, she blamed it on my need for new gadgets....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
This is a good thing and is part of all of our natures. Without it, we would never have left the caves, invented the spiky club, fire, beer or the refrigerator (in which you keep your beer).
Great, great. Now c'mon... make with a new article, already!
So life would be cheaper. However one shouldnt overdrinkdrink the antidote as the love of antiques is more expensive.
Is there a word for people who like slightly used items?
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
We already have a cure for being human, it's called Law School.
Sig withheld to protect the innocent.
Next time, they will discover The Gene that makes us think
the genes are the primary driving force for all our behaviors?
For some reason I had always thought it was my age that made me like computers and technology, but I'm getting fairly old but the desire to buy gadgets and new technology isn't going away.
I'm buying more and getting more than I was a kid mostly because of my greater income.
However, my parents really weren't into gadgets that much so I don't know if this is passed on or just learned as a kid.
However, most kids are pretty quick to learn computers so perhaps if you can the "neophilia" bug as a kid that your mind develops in a certain way (from playing video games and messing with computers) that you end up always being like this.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
If just one gen to flip, please flip my girlfriends bit. She has the burning desire to buy new clothes and shoes.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
I have too much of the cellular enzyme, hornihumpine onmydates A. I need stimulation from nude things.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I always thought Neophilia was the term for people addicted to the Matrix movies...
I love having the latest and greatest tech gadgets and computer components. But one needs to realize there are more important things in life and I think that notion is disappearing.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
This thread is old and boring now... I need a new, more interesting topic.
They gave a new name to the "OOOH SHINEY!" syndrome that every geek has.
I'm all for it as long as they come up with a disability program that helps us. You know, add's an additional $50,000.00 a year to your income for supporting the shiney habit or offering an insurance card that allows us to buy the items with a $20.00 co-pay to offset the costs of collecting new shiney objects with blinking lights.
Although I can see it now... "Im sorry sir but you have already bought a HD-DVD player this month on your plan, you will have to wait until next month. you can buy a new CD changer or GPS though with your monthly allowance."
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I can't wait for the newest drug to treat this affliction. Come on Pfizer, don't leave me hanging...
"Does this wine taste funny to you?" -- Socrates
A genetic basis for some a burning desire to have the latest and greatest? What, apart from the genetic basis of having a Y chromosome?
Does this mean I can get a doctor's note telling my boss to get me the latest and greatest LCD monitor?
Of course! How did we miss it? The ADD/ADHD meds are secretly designed to increase monoamine oxidase A levels! All the pieces are comming together...
Henchman: Sir, we have discovered a problem with the medication.
Evil Boss: Problem? Didn't we prove that it helps to prevent distractions?
Henchman: Well, yes. But, now none of these kids want the shiny new toy.
Evil Boss: My God! Do you have any idea what this will do to Christmas season?! Something must be done about this.
this would be old news.
I mean, "neophilia" has been in the jargon file since, what, 1973?
Clear, Dark Skies
I think it's interesting that when a genetic basis for behavior X is discovered, it is regarded as a disease or "condition." Why is it not chocked up to the mysterious concept of personality? Or culture? Why exactly is this something to be cured or diagnosed? Perhaps this is how that altogether strange concept of microevolution works. Some folks just gotta be discoverers and adventurers.
I always called myself an experience junkie. I get a total high from anything new, even if its bad. I.e. breaking my leg would actually be interesting to me as I'd never done it before. for about the first 2 or 3 days, then the novelty would wear off as it does with pretty much everything else.
... my PPO will cover my PS3???
It's not my fault! At last, vindication! "Honey, I HAD to buy that new digital camera. You understand." :)
Now you've really gone and done it. Now these 'neophiles' have a fucking EXCUSE for it. Do you guys have any idea what kind of dumbassery you have justified?
On the other hand, maybe it's treatable now that we know what it is that causes it. I have a friend who could use some 'deprogramming' before he winds up going broke - again.
They call it neophilia, I've always called it technolust
this is my sig, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
http://www.psychgenetics.com/pt/re/psychgen/abstra ct.00041444-200604000-00005.htm;jsessionid=G1RGgyH Mt3FfMhQX0fvCLdkTq8NQyFHTqVpX2tLQzFXGpZyJlTwV!1941 873617!-949856145!8091!-1
It is called testosterone
...a genetic disorder that boosts the economy!!
"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." -George Carlin
I think my girlfriend may be slipping monoamine oxidase A into my coffee.
I think I deal with this by getting new software all the time. It's a lot cheaper, especially on Linux :)
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
I am really looking forward to the next generation of MAOI's. I mean I was okay when I first started taking MAOI's but I just feel I need something better. I mean I go back to my doctor constantly and he's tweaked the script considerably. I mean my pharmacist has to custom build each tablet, but it's just not right. I am sort of considering electric hypno accupuncture that I read about on this website, but I might also go see yet another doctor....
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg 19025551.700.html
(But Scotsman lets you read the whole thing without subscription)
Nobody else has this sig.
Having read the news article, but not the paper:
I note that the reporter may have gotten it wrong (or just was sensationalist):
Saying the enzyme is "significantly associated with higher scores of novelty-seeking" essentially means that there might be some connection, an unknow one (for if it were known that would be the news), between the presence of the enzyme and a behaviour named "novelty-seeking", that is measured somehow.
I for one am highly sceptic of such discoveries that trails down some behaviour or feeling to a gene or enzyme. Maybe the enzyme isn't the consequence of a behaviour or feeling? (Adrenaline is a consequence as well as a cause, depending on the point of view and the matter discussed.)
Having read a little about socialization and about the works of Matthew Lipman and Reuven Feuerstein, I am much more inclined to assuming that any given behaviour has been learned. And I suspect that any anthropologist would agree with me. If not, I would welcome any enlightment.
Saying a complex psychological behavior is simply a result of having "elevated levels of a brain chemical" is like saying your program has a bug because "it has too many 1s and not enough 0s".
It's kinda true, but even more important is where those signals are present, what is detecting them, and how they got there.
--
make install -not war
Those afflicted with this debilitating genetic disease can be sometimes found wandering the streets mumbling "I know Kung-Fu."
These terms were first coined in the sixties by people like Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary
Example. Have you ever looked at the people in the supermarkets that use food stamps. A lot of them, but not all, have their nails done, their hair professionaly styled, name brand clothing/atire, more makeup on their face than they really need, a brand new gas guzzling SUV every year or two, etc.
Those people are frauds who are cheating the poor; they buy those stamps from poor people at half the face value. Poor people like beer and cigarrettes (and many are addicted), and that job at McDonald's just doesn't buy much beer or many cigarettes, so if they have ample food stamps, they sell some. If you can afford payments on an SUV you don't get food stamps, PERIOD.
Now the kicker - there aren't any more food stamps! Food stamps have been replaced by what's called a "LINK" card in all 50 states. It's been a long, long time since actual coupons have been used. It looks exactly like a credit card or an ATM card, and it was phased in to prevent exactly the kind of abuse that you CLAIM to have seen that I described. Now, you can't tell a "food stamp" (link card) user from anybody else using their Visa.
So in short - BULLSHIT! You're busted, liar! (Ten bucks says you vote straight Republican)
Your cynicism is typical of right-wing whiners: your kind can't look at a scientific result without either misusing it for political purposes or accusing/suspecting other people of doing so. A genetic basis for novelty seeking is just a scientific fact, and not even a surprising or new one. Deal with it.
In fact, most of our behaviors will likely turn out to have a genetic basis. A genetic basis or predisposition doesn't say anything a priori about the personal responsibility to act in certain ways.
And, yes, that includes right wing nuttiness, perpetual cynics, and religious fundamentalism: people are probably genetically predisposed to those behaviors, but that's no excuse for you or anyone else to wallow in those behaviors. You, too, can overcome them if you just try.
The number of possible afflicitions, disorders, etc. begins to saturate the population such that it becomes apparant that everybody has *something* wrong with them. At that point, everybody becomes just like everyone else again and we can once again refocus on taking ownership/responsibility for our own issues.
Either that, or everybody is on drugs to deal with their personal "disorders".
So, the worst case is that we live in a society where smoking is banned, but you can take all the doctor prescribed mood altering drugs you want.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Actually, as anyone who knows their Illuminatus! would know, this genetic variation was first noted in the Atlanteans (Gruad, The Freedom Party, etc).
Ignore this sig
I have at any one time a brace of HP pocket calculators, backed up by slide rules, metre sticks, pendulums (in case WWV fails), and an abacus. Fire extinguishers, a double-barrelled shotgun, blackpowder revolvers, a bolo, portable water filtration system and iodine tablets round out the situation. Heeeeelp Meeee!
Seriously, what's the disorder for people who like reliable old technology that they can fail over to in case all those terrorists and paedophiles coordinate a combined attack?
Extract the monoamine oxidase A from the little urchins and sell it to car dealerships to put in their free coffee. Kids get less greedy, potential car buyers want more tricked out and expensive cars....everybody wins.
Tell me that ain't a plan...
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are an important class of antidepressants, and the most widely used before the newer SSRIs.
Too much MAO means that dopamine and serotonin are being broken down too fast, and those are both important neurotransmitters.
So, the interesting question here is: Has anybody noticed a connection between "neophilia" and any psychological affective disorders like depression or OCD?
lots and lots of costumes ;)
A goal is a dream with a deadline
So, what's the name of the disorder for people who compulsively seek out and coin terms for new disorders?
No conformist ever made history.
I can't think of a condition that would more accurately decribe my need to constantly:
... it all makes sense now.
1) have new challenges at my job
2) travel to new places
3) live in NYC where you're always meeting new people and going to new places
4) have the latest gadgets
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
Are they going to find an enzyme that gives us a predilection to be consumers. Hopefully by then we'll have a pill to combat buyers remorse.
...as opposed to Necrophilia, which is wanting things that aren't really 'fresh' anymore.
It's not necrophelia if you really love the person.
PS, I vote for whoever I agree with, I could care less about what party they are with. See, I can bold stuff too.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
Apparently, some of us have elevated levels of a cellular enzyme, monoamine oxidase A, and are more in need of stimulation from new things.
Oh man, I want to get me some elevated levels of monoamine oxidase A!!! Anyone know of a providor???
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Reading the article more closely, monoamine oxidase A seems to trigger "novelty seeking". The phrase "novelty seeking" could mean many things to many people. It's not just gagetry. I'm sure there are those who seek a better high, a taller mountain, a different spouse, a new social scene, and so on.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
I wondered the same thing. As well as the implications on drug users. I know LOTS of ppl who smoke pot on a regular basis but never got into the "heavier" drugs. Not that they didn't experiment a bit. They prolly did. But in the end, they pretty much stopped at pot. I also know lots of ppl who went from pot to shrooms to LSD to coke to meth to heroin, etc. And most of those ppl are fairly fucked up now and what you would certainly call "addicted".
I wonder if this is in any way correlated to the pot-is-a-gateway drug argument? Some folks can drink/smoke pot all they want and be just fine. Others go on to seek bigger and better highs and wind up bouncing from drug to drug trying to find it.
(sidenote: I also know many more people that don't do any drugs)
...At a time when the government is spying on many of the communications that are present, is it really a suprise that all of a sudden, wanting new things is apparently a disorder now? I mean, without that drive for new things, and ways to innovate, the government wouldn't have to spend so much money on new ways to see what people are doing on new ways to communicate.
Once this officially becomes a disorder and a new drgu is made, I'd expect the government to add more spying to current technology, as since wanting new things is a disorder and people are being treated for it, few are going to innovate to get around it.
Would taking MAO inhibitors keep me from buying crap on eBay?
Please say yes!
Isn't the correct term for this Geek Bone?
Sound waves should be free!
My brother-in-law has always bought gifts for his wife (my sister), my late mother and me based on what he calls the "Gadget Quota". If the item is gadgety enough he knows we will like it.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
may be the only way to keep a budget.
;)
somebody send a truckload of the stuff to washington
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
...a cure for all those boring dullards lacking spontaneity and imagination. They just have a defective version of monoamine oxidase. Do not despair, muggles. We'll save you.
It's also ironic that those who assume Free Will appear to me to be the least responsible, but that's just anecdotal evidence, so I guess I still need to meet and be disappointed by over 6 billion people.
Of couse if you find God in a mushroom you should be able sue government for your neophilia. It is amazing on what subjects the money of ordinary tax payers is spent.
Ok I will bite the troll bait.