The modern world offers temptations that produce greater highs than anything available to our distant ancestors; highs that we are not innately prepared to resist. Refined and flavored foods, instant online gratification, and chemical mood-alteration may lead people into sub-optimal habits.

To prevent all addictions, I propose a monitoring device, such as a web-enabled hat-mounted camera and biomonitoring system, that gives negative feedback, such as an electrical shock, to the user when certain conditions are met.

Until the machine vision technology to do this autonomously is developed, the monitoring would be performed by people remotely watching through the hat's webcams. One person could probably monitor ~10 others, making this not totally unaffordable.

The low-tech alternative- hiring someone to follow oneself around with a ruler- would cost more.

It's not a nanny state if it's only you and it's self-inflicted.

A few examples: 1. User tries to binge on cookies and custard. The hat-mounted camera detects excessive cookies in front of the user's face and delivers a shock. The user is deterred from eating cookies.

2. User sneaks cookie crumbs past the camera inside a closed fist. The biomonitor detects blood sugar level increasing faster than what unprocessed foods could deliver, and delivers a mild but long-duration shock along with stronger shocks whenever the user tries to put their hands up to their face.

3. User spends too long on the halfbakery. The shock begins very mild and gradually increases until the user does something productive.
-- sninctown, Oct 20 2009

<ttztzt> OW!
-- egbert, Oct 20 2009


I'ddddddddddddd g iveyou a BuN,,,. butttthe shockss are makinngg contrftolled movemeentyhs trickyy.
-- kaz, Oct 20 2009


// instant online gratification.... may lead people into sub- optimal habits.// and //hiring someone to follow oneself around with a ruler//

wtf?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 21 2009


mb you get hit with the ruler when you are bad.
-- WcW, Oct 21 2009


[IanTindale] You're probably right; positive reinforcement would be better. The hat could dispense mood-lifting drugs or deliver the shocks to a pleasure center, like in those remote-controlled rat studies.

[MaxwellBuchanan] I write like a tool sometimes. Sorry.

[21Quest] For me, Halfbaking is sometimes productive.

[Bigsleep] By //productive// I mean things like getting in better shape, learning new things, helping family and people who need it, building robots to serve us, finding a more fulfilling job, etc.
--I'm someone who //really wants that//, so I can achieve as much awesome as possible, as fast as possible. People often moderate their own behavior with things like alarm clocks, antidepressants, warning lights, etc.; this idea is an extension of this.
--I predict that a few generations down the line, society will begin using computer-implant augmentation extensively, and this trend will continue until we are all cyborgs with capabilities that double about every decade as the technology improves.

[IanTindale] Yup, same sort of idea. I'm not too sure about the cuttlefish bit.

[Bigsleep]:
//maybe...
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall//
-Mike Flowers Pops, "Wonderwall"
I don't get it. I don't think I need professional help?
-- sninctown, Oct 22 2009



random, halfbakery