Wireheads: SF trivia

OK, I can't remember if this is what really happens.

In Ringworld, I thought that when we first met Louis Wu, he was a "wirehead" or something like that -- addicted to some kind of wire or headset or something that gives him pleasure. But he's also bored with it; hence why he is so easily recruited to go off and adventure.

I haven't read this in years and years, though. Possibly even a decade. So I could be totally confused.

I bring this up because it sounds remarkably similar to a concept that yaksman was just describing from a Spider Robinson novel.