The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

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Let's say you're walking down the street and you see a pebble lying in a puddle. You're probably not going to think anything of it. But, if a highly dopaminergic poet is walking down the street and sees that same pebble, he may feel that that pebble is speaking to him in a very deep way that that pebble is revealing something about humanity and the world. He may even feel like that that pebble somehow reveals the hidden divinity of the world. And he may go on write a very beautiful poem about that that inspires dozens of people.

Molecule of More Book Summary – Dan Lieberman The Molecule of More Book Summary – Dan Lieberman

Kaitlin Luna: So, it's really been integral in what has helped us evolve from early humans to where we are today? Kaitlin Luna: Everything in our body serves a purpose. So, from evolutionary perspective, why does dopamine exist in our brains and are we the only animals who have dopamine? Mike Long: Yes, anticipation to cultivate your ability to just experience where you are. To put the first simple things. I put the phone down during dinner, turn it off when you're talking to somebody, look in their eyes and listen to what they say. Don't worry about what you're going to say next. Listen to be here now, as the phrase goes. The simple awareness that this exists at all is a profound gift that you can give yourself. From the inside, though, it's actually very rational because you have to remember that these circuits were designed by evolution to keep us alive and make us successful. The problem with drugs is, is they give this chemical blast to the dopamine system — almost like a guided missile that causes more dopamine stimulation than natural behaviors. The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas - and progress itself.Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, that's also what might we want to touch on, too. You said so. You know the initial fall in love feeling, however long that might last for a specific person, it's probably up to the individual. But you know, if that might taper off six to eight months to a year, and then you need those other chemicals in your brain – you said neuro-transmitters, I believe, to basically take you to that next phase of making love last and those you coin here and now molecules — talk a little bit about that, and how those are important for keeping relationships alive? It turns out that dopamine doesn’t really care about tasty food. In fact, it doesn’t really care about anything that is predictable. Instead, dopamine gets released when we encounter things that are new, unexpected, and exciting. The left calls themselves progressives. Instead of progress, they want to make the world a better place. Ah, and that's maximizing future resources. And so, they're interested in things like taking control, helping people to live healthier, longer lives by making it difficult for them to access unhealthy food or tobacco or alcohol or things like that. And so, they're very much about taking control of things to maximize the goodness. There's another pathway, though, that goes up to the frontal lobes. We call that the control pathway as opposed to the desire pathway, which is more immediate gratification. This plans for longer term gain, and so, people with very strong control systems, are going to be more the type A workaholics. They can't relax. They work incredibly hard. They're the kind of people who can afford beach houses but can't enjoy them. The last thing they're going to be able to do is sit on the beach, soaking up the sun.

Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in [PDF] [EPUB] The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in

Chapter 6: Progress....................................................................................................... 246 Mike Long: Profound implications for drone warfare. How do you program the machine if you're going to be purely utilitarian? The answer’s easy, but then you have to deal with the aftermath. There was even a film about. I'm sorry. I forget the name. We talk about it in the book. This really is a problem today, and it has to be answered one way or the other. There's no middle ground here.Kaitlin Luna: This is probably something that studied in psychiatry a lot are, you know, in the medical field? Daniel Lieberman: No, it’s not. It might influence your dopamine a tiny bit, but probably not enough to have an effect on you. Daniel Lieberman: And the question was, should we save the hundreds of lives in the stadium at the expense of intentionally murdering this innocent child? And it's an updated version of the trolley problem.

‎The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in - Apple

Control dopamine takes the excitement and motivation provided by desire dopamine, evaluates options, selects tools, and plots a strategy to get what it wants. Analogies represent a very dopaminergic way of thinking about the world. Here’s an example: light can sometimes act like individual bullets being fired from a gun, and at other times like ripples traveling across a pond. An analogy pulls out the abstract, unseen essence of a concept, and matches it with a similar essence of an apparently unrelated concept. So, from an evolutionary point of view, it's incredibly important. And that's why it's so powerful because it directs our behavior from the bottom up. It's designed to keep us alive and make us evolutionarily successful. Sometimes that means going after resources that are already there, but in a much more exciting fashion. Sometimes it means creating resources that never existed before.Daniel Lieberman: That's right. So, I am optimistic that we're going to get there with brain diseases and even addictions. It's going to take a little while, but I think that more and more people are realizing what's going on. And I tell you what. There's nothing that helps people overcome stigma better than experiencing it themselves or having a loved one who experiences it.

The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain

Daniel Lieberman: So, to get a sense of what it feels like to have dopamine pushing you along versus trying to go forward without dopamine. Think about working on a project that you're incredibly excited about. Typically, it's going to be a project that involves some degree of creativity. I do a little bit of programming. I also love to make PowerPoint presentations. I'm a total nerd. Kaitlin Luna: Yeah, it just sort of seems like there's all these temptations out there in the world. Maybe they're always has been. But, in our modern age, there seems to be so many, and that's really what dopamine wants to promise, that you will enjoy these things. And when you find yourself trapped and in the cycle of being addicted to, to, you know, drug, or whether it's, you said some of these things were still figuring out today whether it's an actual addiction but video games, pornography, that kind of thing, just this is if something can really take hold.

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Just as dopamine is the molecule of obsessive yearning, the chemicals most associated with long-term relationships are oxytocin and vasopressin. The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas-and progress itself. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more – more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it's why we gamble and squander. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more - more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it’s why we gamble and squander. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more—more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it’s why we gamble and squander. From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the having that matters. It’s getting something—anything—that’s new. From this understanding—the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it—we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion – and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others. In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different. The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity–and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race by Daniel Z. Lieberman – eBook Details