Yeah, that's fair; I'll probably post there at some point. As another potentially (definitely) stupid question: was there a reason why you ruled out the genetic stuff (modifying the SCN9A gene or something equivalent for pleasure)? The limited research I've done suggests that it's theoretically possible to genetically re-engineer adults, but I don't know whether it'd be possible to do so with the nervous system like this. Do you have any intuitions?

Thanks for the response. I suppose I'm imagining a much more extreme version of SPS, although what I'm imagining can go one way or another (rather than both); a paradise where humans are re-engineered to feel pleasure more intensely, and a Hell where the opposite happens. Would you expect this form of re-wiring (if possible) to increase the "maximum" level of pleasure/pain, if one exists? To use the latter as an example: if every neuron responsible for the sensation of pain were firing, would you expect it to be felt more intensely?

@AliceD Hmm... perhaps it'd be better to say "strength of the reward signals"? Like, how intensely one "feels" the stimuli, if that makes sense. So if you assume that there's a way for a human to be maximally happy; could it be modified to go higher? Same thing the other way with pain.

@ChrisRogers Yeah, it's mainly physical pleasure/pain I'm thinking of.