Searching for the Reward Center
I am in the midst of the early stages of attempting to write a novel, a work of fiction set in the future that explores the question: is technology actually changing human behavior, or allowing certain inherent attributes to become more salient? I am considering a more simplified design of this painting for the cover.
The figure walking down the stairs is feeling ahead blindly with one hand searching for mythical objective reality, while the other is holding a periscope watching and distracted by the warped and idealized reality broadcast from the monitors beneath. Residue from the portal drips and is collected by “a series of tubes” (Sen. Ted Stevens R-AK) that symbolize the internet and media devices, and is broadcast outward.
The book will also be an allegory about depression; hence the title is derived from the dopamine pleasure releasing part of the brain that a depressed person struggles to locate.