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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Our brain simply loves to get high and for a long time we couldn´t get good stuff from the outer world ( it must have been terrible) when we were still stonagey and before, but we had those fine centers for own opioids, own cannabinoids, but especially the other hormones that aren´t so fancy. No matter where we look, to the love in our beds, to the digital shopping card, enemies and frenemies at work, what we love and hate about political parties, we are wired to react like animals. I've worked as an artist for forty years, and the question 'Why am I like this?' has been a puzzle, a mystery, a plea, and an occasional cry to the heavens. Lieberman and Long have created a road map for all those wrestling between insatiable longing and the here and now. Tengo un amigo que cuando escuchó por primera vez el podcast del neurocientífico de Stanford, Andrew Huberman, me dijo: “El tío mola mucho y es una pasada escucharle… una pena que se lo invente todo”. El comentario me hizo bastante gracia porque entendí rápidamente que lo que realmente estaba queriendo decir es que las explicaciones de Huberman sobre cómo funciona el cerebro son tan elegantes, sencillas e intuitivas que parecen ciencia ficción. Leyendo The Molecule of More (libro recomendado por el propio Huberman en uno de los episodios del podcast) he tenido la misma sensación ya que parece imposible que un único neurotransmisor, la dopamina, sea la explicación de tantos y tan dispares comportamientos humanos. 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.

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 Why do we crave what we don’t have rather than feel good about what we do—and why do fools fall in love? Haunting questions of human biology are answered by The Molecule of More, a must-read about the human condition.”

Dopamine has a very specific job: maximizing resources that will be available to us in the future; the pursuit of better things. The crux of our behaviour boils down to two outlooks we humans have – here & now matters (which the authors refer to as the H&N circuit) and the future (our desires and actions). Dopamine is largely what determines how we approach the future – high dopamine defining the drive. Dopamine circuits are in two categories – ones which determine our desires and the other which exerts control over our actions. Further research on rats proved that dopamine activity was at its highest when animals received tasty food. Scientists named the parts of the brain involved in this reaction the dopamine reward circuit. The curious thing is that dopamine makes up a pretty small portion of our brain chemicals. In fact, plenty of your character traits have nothing to do with dopamine. And yet, we often approach our life through a dopamine lens. E un sentiment al anticipării că viața e pe cale să devină mai bună. Circuitele ei nu procesează experiențe din lumea reală, ci numai posibilități viitoare imaginare. Hm, cum ar fi să-mi iau o înghețată după ce termin de scris aici.

Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long have pulled off an amazing feat. They have made a biography of a neurotransmitter a riveting read. Once you understand the power and peril of dopamine, you'll better understand the human condition itself. Glamour creates desires that cannot be fulfilled because they are desires for things that exist only in the imagination. Lieberman is highly entertaining, mixing the hard science with entertaining elements to make it more vivid, transporting it directly into the long term memory, except of course one is too stoned on dopamine and the data transmission affected by too much of whatever emotion. Don´t read angry, nervous, or horny, that´s not healthy for your wisdom! Dopamine is the source of our desires, our tenacity, our creativity, and even our political beliefs. For most of us, these are the qualities that make us “us.” This means that of all our different brain chemicals, we identify most with dopamine.want to know whether you're more like a dopaminergic type or Here&Now type (and if you don't understand these terms, read the book :D) Additionally, this book reaches too far trying to explain too much through too little: love, sex, drug use, creativity, madness, political preference, progress, immigration, you name it - dopamine influences and even determines human behavior in almost any situation. I am not saying it does not play a role, I am saying the author is riding his hobby-horse to death. The ability to put forth effort is dopaminergic. We need to believe we can succeed before we are able to succeed. They’re so attached to dopaminergic stimulation that they flee the present and take refuge in the comfortable world of their own imagination.

When it comes to love, the loss of passionate romance will always happen eventually, and then comes a choice. Also, on a side note, for the love of God and all you hold dear, please stop this nonsense encountered so often in nonfiction books of introducing concepts as follows: The authors may be on to something in noting the downside of being in thrall to the wanting molecule. Identifying with our dopamine circuits “traps us in a world of speculation and possibility.” They say that “we neglect emotion, empathy, the joy of being people we care about” when we focus so strongly on our wants. Families especially suffer. That happy error is what launches dopamine into action. It’s not the extra time or the extra money themselves. It’s the thrill of the unexpected good news. Dopamine makes us seek out new experiences. And the more receptors our brains have for this chemical, the stronger its effect is on our behavior.Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times—and so good at figuring them out? Additionally, the subject matter is utterly germane to the issues of addiction, mental health, compulsory consumption and more fundamentally learning, motivation and ultimately well being. This is a very interesting book on how just one chemical – Dopamine influences so much of our behaviour. The undue influence Dopamine exerts is amazing considering the fraction the Dopamine circuit occupies in our brains. This is a well written book and very informative as well. Initially, dopamine was seen simply as a way for the body to produce a chemical called norepinephrine, which is what adrenaline is called when it is found in the brain."