I think your description of the human relationship to heroin is just wrong. First of all, lots of people in fact do heroin. Second, heroin generates reward but not necessarily long-term reward; kids are taught in school about addiction, tolerance, and other sorts of bad things that might happen to you in the long run (including social disapproval, which I bet is a much more important reason than you’re modeling) if you do too much heroin.
Video games are to my mind a much clearer example of wireheading in humans, especially the ones furthest in the fake achievement direction, and people indulge in those constantly. Also television and similar.
I think your description of the human relationship to heroin is just wrong. First of all, lots of people in fact do heroin. Second, heroin generates reward but not necessarily long-term reward; kids are taught in school about addiction, tolerance, and other sorts of bad things that might happen to you in the long run (including social disapproval, which I bet is a much more important reason than you’re modeling) if you do too much heroin.
Video games are to my mind a much clearer example of wireheading in humans, especially the ones furthest in the fake achievement direction, and people indulge in those constantly. Also television and similar.