THE DOPAMINE FIREPLACE ANALOGY

AN IDEA FOR A POTENTIALLY MORE UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTANDABLE DOPAMINE SYSTEM ANALOGY THAN KYLE GILETTE'S DOPAMINE WAVEPOOL, POPULARIZED BY ANDREW HUBERMAN

OUTLINE

I first want to go through the wavepool analogy as posed by MD Kyle Gilette on Huberman Lab, criticize it, then introduce a new analogy that recently emerged from my subconsious: the dopamine fire.

THE WAVEPOOL ANALOGY

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GOOD CHARACTERISTICS

• Water in wavepool is at one point (more the lenght of the wavepool as shortterm time interval) available dopamine

• height relates to level of dopamine

• dopamine peaks and trophs i.e. the waves have to be created from the current water in the pool

• the higher a current wave, the less water for the next

• the higher any wave, the lower the troph preceding and following that wave

IN THE WORDS OF HUBERMAN’S LLM

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BUT THE THIRD POINT IS FLESHED OUT JUST A LITTLE

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• what follows is that one “the wavepool director“ should not make the waves too high

• one could also imagine the waves becoming so high, that they crash beyond the pool, thus reducing the wave pool’s waterbody

  • which one could view from the side, and see as the integral of the dopamine function, but multiplied by the pool’s width (from area to volume)

THE WAVEPOOL LEAVES MUCH UNANSWERED

• how do I keep the waves low?

• what if water overflows?

  • does water flow back over hoes?

  • how fast does it?

• how long is the time interval in which dopamine water is constant?

  • i.e. one wavepool

• can I also make one big wave?

• can I also have no waves?

  • thus not having lows?

• how much can I control the amplituded of the waves?

• can waves get so high that I reach the ground of the dopamine wavepool in the troph?

• how does the troph feel?

• how does the peak feel?

MOST IMPORTANTLY THOUGH

• one could argue a wavepool is such a rare phenomenon, that most people lack the understanding of the physicality thereof

• I

  • saw one in total two times in my life: visiting the one swimming pool with one a 2h drive from home twice

  • and a few videos maybe

• I also thought for the longest time

  • also since Huberman just talks in his podcast

  • and I often just listen

  • thus a lack of congruence of in this case the visual element

• that the waves in the pool are static

  

  • I once saw Tsunami explanation, that also defined rolling waves as static

  • but further analogy would require more research on my part

    

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THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH THE WAVEPOOL ANALOGY

• if described only in words, many people might lack the familiarity with the wavepool as such to draw accurate comparisons

IDEALLY, AN ANALOGY WOULD ALSO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS

• relationship between pleasure and pain: ideally as a gradient

• restablishing dopamine water volume after splash

• taking from the current wavepool, vs. potentially preparing “the water“ for already the next one: another key element of dopamine: the anticipation for a better future

• current effort for future payoff, but also risk

  • H&N (here and now) molecules vs future oriented ones (as described by Daniel Z. Lieberman in his book “The Molecule of More”)

• different substrats for the not caring dopamine system, with different characteristics in fueling dopamine

SO HOW ABOUT FIRE

• it burns

• it needs something to burn

MORE SPECIFICALLY: A BONFIRE IN A COLD DARK WINTER NIGHT

This allows the following characteristics

• a gradient from warm to cold, that most people probably have experience with: feeling

• a gradient from light to dark

  • most people also have some experience with light

• light as the universal symbol for hope

• darkness as the universal symbol for, well darkness. The analogies for pain, depression etc. don’t even need to be specified, since darkness itself seems to be so universally understood

• wood as substrate

  • different kinds of woods

    • last longer, shorter

    • have different burning rates

    • different heat, but at the cost of: the future

• more fire, more light, more warmth right now

• comes at the cost of the future

• the more one draws from the future, the more terrible the predictions thereof

  • cold

  • dark

• sacrificing now

  • less wood

  • less fire

  • less heat

  • less light

    • also to keep potential dangers like animals away

  • rewards with a better

    • more wood

    • more fire

    • more heat

    • more light

  • future

• the bonfire therefore also embodies one of the basic principles of economic theory: sacrifice now, for a better tomorrow.

• which, if dopamine would want to get elected, would make a good slogan

  • for a better tomorrow

  • for a warmer, brighter tomorrow

• low dopamine feels like darkness

  • if dopamine is blocked by prolactin for example

    

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SPELLED OUT IN SENTENCES

• in the endless cold, dark winter night, one has to make wood somehow. Get out, into the the dark

• as shown in the image, one can maybe even store some wood around the fire

  • or invent elecricity

  • but let’s keep it simple

• one can also burn other things, but they might result in a less predictable fire (and light and warmth)

• one could even find dopamine bypasses: paper, oil etc. Which could offer an analogy for dopamine depleting substrates (drugs e.g.) which in the shortterm might produce way higher, brighter flames

  • but if not prepared one might get burns

  • and not see for a while after, increasing risk of movement after

• and the more potent substrates might create a fire so big, that it devours the underlying wood in seconds to minutes

• if dosed properly

  • candle

  • oil lamp

  • gas lamp

• one might find fire alternatives, but they might also come with greater risks

  • oil canister blowing up

  • gas station blowing up

• other agents like prolactin

  • fire as an element: hormone/ neurotransmitter

  • water as another

  • etc.

• could in one swoop extinguish the fire

  • and once the flame is gone

  • it’s very hard to ignite a fire again, potentially even with wet wood

  • one could even introduce other elements like: prolactin in the form of rain

  • as long as it rains - prolactin is present - igniting a fire, even with the best wood might be very hard

    • even with a lighter

    • what is a dopamine lighter?

  • and in such situations other substrates

    • due to the cold posing a risk of death of freezing

    • demanding a greater caloric expenditure

    • reducing movement for energy preservation

      • similar how under the influence of prolactin, with dopamine and testoerone blocked, one might move less

      • but the movement, directed one, one that gathers more fire substrate

    • would be the only solution out having no fire

  • or

    • other fires

    • i.e.: other people

    • social contact, at least with people who still have fire, might bring the fire back to one’s one place

SINCE MY SUBCONSCIOUS CAME UP WITH THE FIREPLACE IDEA YESTERDAY

I already tried to put it into some shorter sentences.

Dopamine is like a bonfire in the cold winter night.

Move away from it, and you are lost.

Stare too long at it, and it will burn down.

So you have to get up.

So you have to get out.

You might trip, might stumble as you search freezing in the dark for something to burn.

You might make it back.

But you can only warm yourself up for so long.

Because you need to keep it burning.

THE IMAGE OF THE FIRE

The fire in the infinite darkness. It seems so universal, so powerful to me. For years now I searched for something, an analogy for how my motivation works. And i think I found one. I might need to flesh it out. I migght need to try to translate my ideas into something as powerful as

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

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