
The Brave New World of Chemical Romance - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/88/love--sex/the-brave-new-world-of-chemical-romance
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DoingIsLearning
When they talk about substances with 'global' effects as being too blunt and
then talk about 'precise' intervention it reads like some sort of real life
Stor Gendibal from Asimov's Second Foundation, with his precise adjustments of
the fine tendrils of the mind.

It's interesting that they depict a human belief in love as "potentially
immature" but then substitute it with an alternative, potential immature view,
that depends on the materialism belief that somehow we will eventually be able
(in a future around the corner) to understand what being human is, and reduce
it to a set of detailed material interactions.

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Scaevolus
Apart from the bonding mechanisms of sex that they mentioned, the strongest
natural love drug I've encountered is newborn smell.

Somehow for the first few weeks after they're born, sniffing a newborn
releases a powerful hit of dopamine and oxytocin in the brain.
[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-smell-of-
newbo...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-smell-of-newborn-
babies-triggers-the-same-reward-centers-as-drugs-58482/)

~~~
pmoriarty
I guess I must be impervious to this smell, as I've held newborns and they did
absolutely nothing for me.

MDMA and other psychedelics, on the other hand... there's no mistaking their
effects, which in sufficient doses can be infinitely more powerful than people
who've never taken them can imagine.

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23925673](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23925673)

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gedy
The cynic in me tells me desperate people would take these to make staying in
an abusive relationship easier.

