Greg Egan wrote a story in 1997 called "Reasons to Be Cheerful." A man gets an implant that lets him pick what makes him happy i.e. self-serve happiness.

Not surprisingly, it does not turn out to be what it seems to be. This story has stuck with me for some time and resonates louder every year after I realized  that implant is the feed we're all reading, and eventually we're not the ones fine-tuning it.

Maybe there's still a reason to be cheerful. Some thoughts and an abandoned book review.

Read the post: https://vishsubramanian.me/fine-tuned-without-permission/

P.S. New here? Recent posts: “Macbeth, a tour guide, and LangGraph” and “Do Androids Dream of Vibe Coding?”