Sociopath Community

Tryptamine said: 

yes, there is a self-preservation instinct. your brain stem keeps you going, and there are all of these pathways to maintain homeostasis. but what i mean is that describing things in terms of functions becomes inadequate. and people handle this in all sorts of ways, even by avoiding it entirely. and that does not mean just become religious, though i wish it were that simple. but it does mean you have to find a reason to be here, and not just that you are alive

I do not think a person needs a larger reason to be here beyond the causes already producing their behavior. Describing those causes as functions does not make them inadequate; it only removes the extra story placed over them. People continue because their brains generate preferences, attachments, curiosity, habits, pleasure, and aversion to death. An overarching purpose is not necessary to produce motivation. Ironically, pressure to find a purpose can create the very risks you associate with nihilism, and possibly greater ones. It can delude people into treating danger, or unreasonable expectations as meaningful obligations. A lack of cosmic purpose does not require recklessness, whereas an invented purpose can actively justify it.

Tryptamine said:

participating in society?

There is no singular act of “participating in society,” because society is not one coherent entity. It is a label for many institutions, industries, and hierarchies.

Behavior comes from reactive brain systems: the amygdala and stress circuits register threat, dopamine pathways reinforce expected rewards, the basal ganglia automate repeated responses, and the prefrontal cortex compares likely outcomes using information shaped by memory and conditioning. These systems can steer separate organisms, but they do not create a shared subject or collective purpose.

and so why are you here, then? to maximize a dopamine output?

Tryptamine said: 

and so why are you here, then? to maximize a dopamine output?

There is no “why” beyond the processes keeping my organism active. The brain is not simply maximizing dopamine. The hypothalamus and brainstem regulate breathing, hunger, temperature, arousal, and other homeostatic functions through electrical signaling, hormones, and chemicals such as norepinephrine and serotonin.

Dopamine helps update motivation, learning, and expected reward; glutamate and GABA regulate neural excitation and inhibition; cortisol and adrenaline coordinate stress responses; the hippocampus links present situations to memory; and the basal ganglia turn repeated responses into habits. Attachment and social behavior also involve interacting systems influenced by oxytocin, endogenous opioids, dopamine, memory, and conditioning.

The prefrontal cortex compares possible outcomes using all of this inherited and learned information. I am here because my nervous system continues generating preferences, aversions, attachments, and responses. Turning those processes into one overarching purpose is adding a story to the mechanism.

yes, i am aware of neurotransmitters. what i was saying in plain english is: if you are just this homeostatic thing, you are just like a thing living because it has to? like how do you see this

Tryptamine said: 

yes, i am aware of neurotransmitters. what i was saying in plain english is: if you are just this homeostatic thing, you are just like a thing living because it has to? like how do you see this

I don’t feel like I live because I “have to.” My nervous system naturally keeps me alive, and I’m fine enjoying the experiences it finds pleasurable, even something as simple as garlic sauce.

For me, living toward moksha is not about suppressing every desire. It is about not extending samsara through reproduction or feeding another organism into a world shaped by entropy, danger, and often cruel human systems. I can enjoy the life already occurring without needing to create another one or assign it a grander purpose.