Happy Button?

Damn Interesting » Technology and the Pursuit of Happiness

This reminds me of an old comic book I read, where a cyborg (part human/part machine) was wired up with a big red "pleasure button" on his chest, but was wired to be unable to press it himself. So he would walk around trying to convince people to press it for him. AH! Found some info about the comic I remember. He was called Axel Pressbutton. So there.

To get back on topic: There is some discussion in the linked article about the social ramifications of having people be able to "press their own buttons". Much of the talk indicates that society would fall apart as people sat around getting off without the will to work. There may well be some truth in that, but there is also a great deal of puritanical guilt in the idea that things that are pleasurable are inherently dangerous and must be controlled.