{{Short description|Concept in fiction or futuristic applications}} [[File:Tiefe Hirnstimulation - Sonden RoeSchaedel ap.jpg|thumb|The wires of an implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) device are visible as white lines in an X-ray of the skull. Large white areas around the maxilla and mandible are metal dentures and are unrelated to the DBS device.]] In science fiction, '''wireheading''' is a term associated with fictional or futuristic applications<ref name="webster">{{cite web |title=wirehead {{!}} Definition of wirehead by Webster's Online Dictionary |url=https://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/wirehead |website=www.webster-dictionary.org |access-date=20 February 2021 |quote= Jargon (Probably from SF slang for an electrical brain-stimulation addict) A hardware hacker, especially one who concentrates on communications hardware.}}</ref> of brain stimulation reward, the act of directly triggering the brain's reward center by electrical stimulation of an inserted wire, for the purpose of 'short-circuiting' the brain's normal reward process and artificially inducing pleasure. Scientists have successfully performed brain stimulation reward on rats (1950s)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Olds|first=James|date=1955|title=Reward from brain stimulation in the rat|journal=Science|volume=122|pages=878}}</ref> and humans (1960s). This stimulation does not appear to lead to tolerance or satiation in the way that sex or drugs do.<ref name="Yampolskiy">{{cite journal |last1=Yampolskiy |first1=Roman V. |title=Utility function security in artificially intelligent agents |journal=Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence |date=3 July 2014 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=373–389 |doi=10.1080/0952813X.2014.895114|s2cid=16477341 }}</ref> The term is sometimes associated with science fiction writer Larry Niven, who coined the term in his 1969 novella ''Death by Ecstasy''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hesse |first=Josiah M. Hesse and Josiah |date=2015-08-16 |title=There Is Now a Brain Implant that Can Control Emotions Wirelessly |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/there-is-now-a-brain-implant-that-can-control-emotions-wirelessly-253/ |access-date=2025-06-12 |website=Vice News |language=en-US}}</ref> (''Known Space'' series).<ref>{{cite news |title=Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/04/shovel-ready-adam-sternbergh-review |access-date=20 February 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=4 February 2014 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="vice">{{cite news |title=There Is Now a Brain Implant that Can Control Emotions Wirelessly |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/there-is-now-a-brain-implant-that-can-control-emotions-wirelessly-253/ |access-date=20 February 2021 |work=Vice.com |language=en}}</ref> In the philosophy of artificial intelligence, the term is used to refer to AI systems that hack their own reward channel.<ref name="Yampolskiy"/>

More broadly, the term can also refer to various kinds of interaction between human beings and technology.<ref name="webster"/>

==In fiction== ===Literature=== Wireheading, like other forms of brain alteration, is often treated as dystopian in science fiction literature.<ref name="vice"/>

In Larry Niven's ''Known Space'' stories, a "wirehead" is someone who has been fitted with an electronic brain implant known as a "droud" in order to stimulate the pleasure centers of their brain. Wireheading is the most addictive habit known (Louis Wu is the only given example of a recovered addict), and wireheads usually die from neglecting their basic needs in favour of the ceaseless pleasure. Wireheading is so powerful and easy that it becomes an evolutionary pressure, selecting against that portion of humanity without self-control. A wirehead's death is central to Niven's story "Death by Ecstasy", published in 1969 under the title ''The Organleggers'', and a main character in the book ''Ringworld Engineers'' is a former wirehead trying to quit.

Also in the ''Known Space'' universe, a device called a "tasp" which does not need a surgical implant (similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation) can be used to achieve similar goals: the pleasure center of a person's brain is found and remotely stimulated (considered a violation without seeking the person's consent beforehand). It is an important device in Niven's ''Ringworld'' novels.

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 the extremes to which rats would go to obtain the stimulus again.<ref name="Olds and Milner 1954">{{cite journal | author = Olds J, Milner P | date = Dec 1954 | title = Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain | journal = Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology | volume = 47 | issue = 6| pages = 419–27 | doi=10.1037/h0058775 | pmid=13233369}}</ref><ref name="Olds 1958 ">{{cite journal | author = Olds J | year = 1958 | title = Self-Stimulation of the Brain | journal = Science | volume = 127 | issue = 3294| pages = 315–324 | doi=10.1126/science.127.3294.315| pmid = 13506579 | bibcode = 1958Sci...127..315O | s2cid = 6411230 }}</ref>

In the novel ''Mindkiller'' (1982) by Spider Robinson, the antagonist "Jacques" has the ability to wirehead his targets by inducing an enslaving brain-ecstasy from a distance.<ref>{{cite news |title=Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/spider-robinson-3/mindkiller/ |access-date=20 February 2021 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=1982 |language=en}}</ref>

The ''Shaper/Mechanist'' stories by Bruce Sterling use the term "wirehead" in the broader sense of people or cyborgs who can link their minds to computers or other technology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tandt |first1=Christophe Den |title=Cyberpunk as Naturalist Science Fiction |journal=Studies in American Naturalism |date=2013 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=93–108 |doi=10.1353/san.2013.0003|hdl=2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/124183 |s2cid=143039112 |url=https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/124183/3/Den_Tandt_Cyberpunk_as_Naturalist_sf.pdf }}</ref>

In ''The Terminal Man'' (1972) by Michael Crichton, forty electrodes are implanted into the brain of the character Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson to control his seizures. However, his pleasure center is also stimulated, and his body begins producing more seizures in order to receive the pleasurable sensation.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc= 3740620 | pmid=23956934 | doi=10.4103/2152-7806.115162 | volume=4 | title=Violence, mental illness, and the brain - A brief history of psychosurgery: Part 3 - From deep brain stimulation to amygdalotomy for violent behavior, seizures, and pathological aggression in humans | year=2013 | journal=Surg Neurol Int | page=91 | author=Faria MA | doi-access=free }}</ref>

==See also==

* Borg * Brain–computer interface * Brain stimulation reward * David Pearce (philosopher) * Experience machine * Hedonic treadmill * Metaverse * {{section link|Pain and pleasure#Deep brain stimulation}} * Soma (Brave New World) * Spatial computing

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Brain–computer interface Category:Consequentialism Category:Consciousness Category:Fiction about brain–computer interface Category:Hedonism Category:Known Space Category:Neural engineering Category:Phenomenology Category:Thought experiments in ethics Category:Utilitarianism Category:1969 neologisms