[echelon]

> lots of smart people spent a lot of time and effort working on this

That's unfortunately true of a lot of undesirable things. Ad tech, trackers, robocall software, nicotine, wacky inflatable tube guy, large swaths of law and politics...

Wouldn't it be great if we all worked on good things? The whole hill climbing / gradient ascent algorithm this planet is running would work a lot faster.

[taneq]

I don't think wacky inflatable tube guy belongs in that list. :(

[tomp]

Actually, Nicotine (without the rest of the cigarette) actually probably isn't as bad (in particular, might not be addictive).

https://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#nicotine