Wirehead (science fiction)

The wires of an implanted deep brain stimulation device are visible in an X-ray of the skull. Large white areas around maxilla and mandible are metal dentures and are unrelated to the DBS device

Wirehead is a term used in science fiction works to denote different kinds of interaction between people and technology.

Known Space stories

In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, a wirehead is someone who has been fitted with an electronic brain implant (called a "droud" in the stories) to stimulate the pleasure centres of their brain. In the Known Space universe, wireheading is the most addictive habit known (Louis Wu is the only given example of a recovered addict), and wireheads usually die from neglecting themselves in favour of the ceaseless pleasure. Wireheading is so powerful and easy that it becomes an evolutionary pressure, selecting against that portion of Known Space humanity without self-control. Also in this science fiction there is a device called a "tasp" (similar to Transcranial magnetic stimulation) that does not need a surgical implant; the pleasure center of a person brain is found and remotely stimulated (a violation without getting the persons consent beforehand), an important Sci-Fi device in the Ringworld novels.

A wirehead's death is central to Niven's Gil 'the Arm' Hamilton story, Death by Ecstasy, published by Galaxy Magazine in 1969, and a main character in the book Ringworld Engineers is a former wirehead trying to quit.

Niven's stories explain wireheads by mentioning a study in which experimental rats had electrodes implanted at strategic locations in their brains, so that an applied current would induce a pleasant feeling. If the current could be obtained any time the rats pushed the lever, they would use it over and over, ignoring food and physical necessities until they died. Such experiments were actually conducted by James Olds and Peter Milner in the 1950s, first discovering the locations of such areas, and later showing extremes to which rats would go to obtain the stimulus again.^[1][2]

Dr. Robert Galbraith Heath actually placed electrodes in his subjects brains in the 1950s to try to treat their mental illness. Dr. Health wrote several papers on his work of stimulating the various regions of the brain.

José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado also placed electrodes in his patients brains. He called his inventions a "stimoceiver" and a "chemitrode".

Shaper/Mechanist stories

In the Shaper/Mechanist stories of Bruce Sterling, "wirehead" is the Mechanist term for a human who has given up corporeal existence and become an infomorph.

The Centurions (animated series)

In episode 41, "Zone Dancer" of The Centurions (TV series) animated series, the lead character Crystal Kane is accused of "Zone Dancing" (The series term for computer hacking) and seen using a "droud" to interface her brain with computer networks in what is probably the first animated representation of Cyberspace and Virtual Reality. The story written by Michael Reaves weaves a future noir tale of cyberpunk espionage, cloning and private-eye procedural, all set in the universe of the animated series and makes copious references to William Gibson's Neuromancer story. There is even a Zone Dancer named Gibson and what may be an homage to Larry Niven's Louis Wu there is even a cyberneticst named Dr. Wu.

Mindkiller

• Mindkiller, a sci-fi novel by Spider Robinson. Mindkiller is a 1982 novel by science fiction writer Spider Robinson. The novel, set in the late 1980s, explores the social implications of technologies to manipulate the brain, beginning with wireheading, the use of electrical current to stimulate the pleasure center of the brain in order to achieve a narcotic high.

Non-fictional examples

• 1963: "Electrical self-stimulation of the brain in man." by Dr. Robert Heath.^[3]
• 1972: A 24-year-old man with temporal lobe epilepsy, identified as patient "B-19". "He was permitted to wear the device for 3 hours at a time: on one occasion he stimulated his septal region 1,200 times, on another occasion 1,500 times, and on a third occasion 900 times. He protested each time the unit was taken from him, pleading to self-stimulate just a few more times... " ^[4][5][6]
• 1986: A 48-year-old woman with chronic pain. "the patient self-stimulated throughout the day, neglecting personal hygiene and family commitments."^[4]

See also

• Dr José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado
• Dr. Robert Heath
• Dr James Olds
• Dr Wilder Penfield
• Drug addiction
• The Experience Machine
• Brain stimulation reward (BSR)
• Electrical brain stimulation
• Deep brain stimulation
• Brain stimulation
• Brain implant
• Pleasure center
• Brain–computer interface
• "Click" adult/erotic comic by Milo Manara
• The Terminal Man a sci-fi novel by Michael Crichton in which a character named Benson has a stimulus implant in his brain.

References