Addiction

Addiction occurs when the feedback loop that rewards some pleasurable action becomes so dominant that it crowds out other sources of reinforcement, to the point of significant diminishing returns on happiness and rising negative consequences.

It's a neural pathway that has been repeated so many times that it has synaptic connections to all kinds of stimuli, making it very easily triggered and, once triggered, very hard to switch to any other neural pathway until the addictive behavior has been completed.

It effectively limits what free will we have by narrowing the range of possible choices we can make, due to limits on time, money, and the low salience of other activities compared to the addiction.

Through moderation we can find ways to enjoy the pleasures of the universe while consciously avoiding addiction by regulating temptation with incentive structures based on best practices.