Re: transcranial magnetic stimulation (was Uploading and Nanotec

Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Sun, 19 Apr 1998 17:54:03 +0000

Anders Sandberg wrote:
> > I wonder if transcranial magnetic stimulation could be used for
> > recreational purposes, by noninvasively stimulating the pleasure
> > centres? (At least it would be legal for some time before the
> > legislators caught up with the development.)
>
> Unfortunately, the pleasure centers (ventral tegmental area, septal
> region, nucleus accumbens et al) are very deep inside the brain, so to
> stimulate them you would have to stimulate most of the brain - with
> nasty effects.

Would it in principle be possible to arrange the magnetic fields in
such a way that the flield strength is only significant in the
nucleus accumbens, say, and perhaps in some regions were the
stimulation doesn't have any effect?

_____________________________________________________
Nick Bostrom
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb