In my experience, there's lots of ways to make myself not want to eat those sweets.
For example, I can get out of the house and go for a brisk walk, or better yet go to the gym and work out. IME, while I'm exercising I rarely find myself craving food of any sort unless I'm genuinely hungry.
Or I can make myself a large portion of something else to eat, and eat it until I'm stuffed. IME, I don't want to eat sweets when I'm actively full.
Or I can go to sleep. IME, I don't want to eat sweets while I'm sleeping.
Or I can douse the sweets with urine. IME, I don't want to eat sweets doused in urine.
Or many other possibilities.
The problem is I don't want to do any of those things, either.
Which is a remarkable coincidence, when I stop to think about it.
In fact, a neutral observer might conclude that I want to want to eat the sweets.
I am passionately fond of the idea of creating an “Art of Rationality” sensibility/school as described in the [A Sense That More is Possible](http://lesswrong.com/lw/2c/a_sense_that_more_is_possible/) article.
The obstacle I see as most formidable in such an undertaking is the fact that, no matter how much “rational software” our brains absorb, we cannot escape the fact that we exist within the construct of “irrational hardware”.
My physical body binds me to countless irrational motivations. Just to name a few: 1) Sex. In an overpopulated world, what is the benefit of yearning for sexual contact on a daily basis? How often does the desire for sex influence rational thought? Is “being rational” sexy? If not, it is in direct conflict with my body’s desire and therefore, undesirable (whereas being able to “kick someone’s ass” is definitely sexy in cultural terms) 2) Mortality. Given an expiration date, it becomes fairly easy to justify immediate/individually beneficial behavior above long term/expansively beneficial behavior that I will not be around long enough to enjoy. 3) Food, water, shelter. My body needs a bare minimum in order to survive. If being rational conflicts with my ability to provide my body with its basic needs (because I exist within an irrational construct)… what are the odds that rationality will be tossed out in favor of irrational compliance that assures my basic physical needs will be met?
As far as I can tell, being purely rational is in direct opposition to being human. In essence, our hardware is in conflict with rationality.
The reason there is not a “School of Super Bad Ass Black Belt Rationality” could be as simple as…. It doesn't make people want to mate with you. It’s just not sexy in human terms.
I’m not sure being rational will be possible until we transcend our flesh and blood bodies, at which point creating “human friendly” AI would be rather irrelevant. If AI materializes before we transcend our flesh and blood bodies, it seems more likely that human beings will cause a conflict than the purely rational AI, so shouldn't the focus be toward human transcendence rather than FAI?