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12 October 2015

Benign Addiction

You’ve probably heard the joke about the air addiction: “I just can’t give it up.” The same applies to food, water, and other basic necessities. Technically, an addiction is defined as any perceived need whose gratification interferes with a person’s normal responsibilities. An air addiction cannot qualify, since breathing does not, for the most part, interfere with anything.

However, I have previously written on the “entertainment age”, the possibility that many if not most forms of labor may be mechanized into obsoletion in the future. In my previous line of thought, I considered that this would lead to an increase in creativity, that artists might become the only sorts of producers. Now, I question what unsettling role addiction might play in this future.

I do not mean to trace the path of “Brave New World”; in this future there are not a variety of jobs to perform, there are virtually no jobs at all. In such a future, might addiction replace human interaction? Devoid of “normal responsibilities”, might not any addiction become justifiable, even benign, yet remain all-consuming?

The question, then, comes down to this: Which does humanity innately desire more, pleasure or friendship? I find I cannot answer the question, but the future may have to.