Catnip is a drug for cats. If you give it to them, they will eat it and roll in it, etc. How can cats afford to be paled out on catnip when many creatures are bigger than them and could easily prey on them when they are acting this way? Cats can simply snap out of the catnip “high” at any time if they are in danger.
In the words of Huey Lewis and the News, “I want a new drug, one that won’t make me sick, one that won’t make me crash my car…” The song goes on and on about the bad effects of drugs on humans, that he wishes weren’t there.
A catnip for humans might fill the bill. Or a human nip, as it were. I realize Huey’s solution is love but we’re going to consider Human Nip in its stead.
Let’s say it’s last call at the human nip bar. They’ll whisper it from table to table. You say Heck ya, I want to be more high on this stuff. So you get some more and spend the next hour after last call under the deepest spells of human nip. When they finally want you out of there for good, they bang a big gong and this shocks all the customers into sobriety. An orderly exit of the establishment follows.
Let’s say you’re a contrarian; you want to human nip and drive. You can make an attempt at this experience but the shock of starting the engine and realizing no one is going to stop you, shocks you into rejecting the effects of the human nip. You quite literally can’t human nip and drive.
Like any drug, it is possible you may O.D. on human nip. So you ingest as much as you can if you’re feeling too depressed. But the shock of having so much, shocks you into being sober. You suddenly realize that you might not be able to O.D. on this, that the adrenaline when you get shocked might negate all the powers of the human nip.
Remember all those times on other drugs when you started to act so stupid and just couldn’t help yourself? A good slap in the face could easily send you into sobriety. As a result, since you want to keep your high, you deliberately avoid doing really stupid things.
So there you have it. It might not be love, but a human nip could be almost as socially benign as love. I think many biologists could work toward this. After all, with AI expected to take all of our jobs in the next century, we’re going to have to keep ourselves entertained somehow.
