I was reading some analysis about artificial intelligence, AI capability control and instrumental convergence recently and came across this old sci-fi concept from Larry Niven called Wireheading:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehead_(science_fiction)Larry Niven is the ringworld guy (it is basically what inspired Halo) and I was also slightly annoyed because he had apparently already done the Space Beowulf thing in 1966 without me being even aware of it.
But Wireheading is basically direct brain pleasure stimulation, ie hacking or distorting reward / input channels (eg in sci-fi with transcranial magnetic stimulation) - often it becomes so pleasurable and rewarding that Wireheads neglect basic needs.
This made me think: are quests and roleplaying games the purest form of this input hacking or Wirehead nonsatiable sensory reward experience.
Importantly I think this is different to escapism from say videogames, films or novels etc because in those mediated realities you do not control the input channel (you are escaping into the pre-created / programmed world of another).
The idea with Wireheads and input reward hacking is that you shape and control your own virtual world, eg rpg worldbuilding, text games and quests etc. Technically the only interface you need to do this is just words or text (not even images).
