Well articulated reasoning. As a doctor who has used the placebo effect in healing, I can express support for looking for ways to amplify it as much as possible. I have pondered why the brain cannot self diagnose many diseases that are often fatal. For instance the first sign of heart disease for many people is death.

Not sure I concur with your characterisation of the wireheading thing, and the imperative to give the switch to others. Scripture and modern science concur the best way to avoid temptation is to flee, i.e., use your willpower to create something better in the first place. That "something better" would be a stronger will that delights in the truth, in development of the future and in excellence. Pain is not always unenjoyable. I enjoy the pain of riding up hills on my bike, knowing it's making me stronger. A large part of being human is to delay gratification, but equally to celebrate and enjoy that gratification at the appropriate time. I guess the definition of appropriate will come from our combined cultural understanding, which we can influence.

Great article. Virtue memeplexes may be an answer. Training the brain, with stories and ancestry and nostalgia, to crave heroism, authenticity, challenge -- to angrily resist radical reduction, to find the deliciousness of Matrix-steak abhorrent. It's how Kirk escaped the Nexus. A "noblesse oblige" for humanity entire; leverage the mystique of honor against the abyss of decadance.