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Chapter 4
Wireheading, Addiction,
and Mental Illness
in Machines
*
4.1 INTRODUCTION
e term wirehead traces its origins to intracranial self-stimulation exper-
iments performed by James Olds and Peter Milner on rats in the 1950s
(Olds and Milner 1954). Experiments included a procedure for implanting
a wire electrode in an area of a rat’s brain responsible for reward adminis-
tration. e rodent was given the ability to self-administer a small electric
shock by pressing a lever and to continue receiving additional “pleasure
shocks” for each press. It was observed that the animal continued to self-
stimulate without rest, and even crossed an elec