What about wireheading that's one step further away from the brain, ie, which just attaches to the sensory and motor nerves and provides a simulated universe? That doesn't seem to require modifying the utility function, but I include it under the term wireheading if it's irreversible and the simulated universe doesn't interact with the real one.
I believe it does need modifying the utility function given technological constrains, consider for example if the simulated person's physical body was threatened and they were not be able to respond appropriately, This is one of the main reason I included suicide next to lobotomy, I wasn't really clear on that, but you make a much more interesting point.
now that I think about it-for a few minutes-I generally agree with you, attaching sensory and motor nerves for a simulated universe is in fact a form of wire heading. I wonder if my definition of full wireheading needs to be changed though? I don't specify any time constraints because the utility function can in fact change 'for the better' under correct circumstance, not to mention the general case of human terminal values having natural or provoked drift as Rain eloquently put it.
actually, I'm interested in why you include jacking into a a simulation as wireheading for reasons other than not interacting with the real world? does it apply if we include a defense mechanism yet the person remains engrossed in the simulation?
I came to the idea after a previous lesswrong topic discussing nihilism, and its several comments on depression and suicide. My argument is that wire heading in its extreme or complete/full form can be easily modeled as suicide, or less strongly as volitional intelligence reduction, at least given current human brain structure and the technology being underdeveloped and hence understood and more likely to lead to such end states.
I define Full Wire Heading as that which a person would not want to reverse after it 'activates' and which deletes their previous utility function or most of it. a weak definition yes, but it should be enough for the preliminary purposes of this post. A full wire head is extremely constrained, much like an infant for e.g. and although the new utility function could involve a wide range of actions, the activation of a few brain regions would be the main goal, and so they are extremely limited.
If one takes this position seriously, it follows that only one's moral standpoint on suicide or say lobotomy should govern judgments about full wire heading. This is trivially obvious of course, but to take this position as true we need to understand more about wire heading, as data is extremely lacking especially in regards to human like brains. My other question then is to what extent could such an experiment help in answering the first question?