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“Happily ever after” won’t happen regardless of what we achieve - because it’s simply not in the interests of our genes.
the aim of our lives amounts to nothing more than convincing our own brain to make us feel good.
The animals that felt pain when their bodies were damaged were the ones more likely to survive.
At some stage, if we go back far enough, there is no doubt that our ancestors were machines.
something had to happen that gave our ancestors this ability to choose what to do with their lives.
Part 2 will suggest that, in the words of Buddha, life is inherently unsatisfactory; not because the world is too difficult to control but because our own minds will never allow us to be satisfied, regardless
experience of choosing. If 1) our choices are controlled by our ‘feelings’; and 2) our feelings are controlled by evolutionary pre-programming, then ‘what we want’ is nothing more than ‘what we calculate will maximise the survival chances of our genes’. If our ‘choices’ are simply responses to evolutionary pre-programming, then
Two employees receive a $5000 end-of-the-year bonus. One of them flips burgers for a living, and the other works on Wall Street. Mr Burger Flipper is delighted with his $5000… whilst Mr Wall Street is mortified. Last year, his bonus was $200,000. The men’s reactions are entirely dependent on their expectations of life.
work hard in pursuit of happiness... but you didn’t work out what was going to happen when it got happy.
Imagine you lived 100 years ago… You get up in the morning… and it’s cold. The central heating must be broken. But of course there isn’t any central heating. There’s also no hot shower. Never mind, once you get into the car, you’ll warm up and it’ll be nice and cosy at work. But of course, there’s no car, and you’ve got to walk to work, and it’s no warmer at work because you work in a field. The only thing left to look forward to is getting home and putting your feet up in front of the TV… Most of the things we take for granted in the 21st Century didn’t even exist 100 years
ago. Can you imagine a life without cars, TV, good hospitals, fridges, fast food…?
stitch. Endorphins are also thought to be responsible for the feelings of euphoria often referred to as the ‘runners high’ experienced during intense exercise.
All the minor aches and pains that are normally dulled by endorphins are now free to persecute the conscious mind unchecked.
Will they at the same time become painfully aware of the inherent weakness in the traditional method by which their conscious minds attempt to achieve this aim – realising that no matter how much control they achieve over the world they live in they’ll be no closer to achieving satisfaction and contentment than their caveman ancestors?
technology that allows them to control the world inside their heads rather than the world outside?
After all, who needs the actual experience? Surely all we need are the feelings that go with it…? “And now, ladies and gentlemen, thanks to the miracles of modern science, you too can experience the perfect life... “Just climb up onto this hospital bed, and we’ll put a small drip in your arm and these rather comfortable electrodes into your head. “No, don’t worry, madam, you won’t need a book to read – you can just lie there, feeling better than you’ve ever felt before - no worries, no fears, no guilt, no pain, just
But let’s be realistic. Huxley’s pill wasn’t much to get excited about. It was more of a
Pleasures and satisfaction in life come when we achieve something,
achievement is because that’s how we’re wired up... because we’re evolutionary robots, and that’s what it takes to improve our genetic chances.
Evolution decides when the time is right for you to feel sad, not you.
Heaven on Earth The happy pill was around a long time before Aldous Huxley. Some religions call it ‘heaven’.
bored in this heaven place?” For ‘soul’ read ‘conscious mind’. For ‘heaven’, read ‘happiness bed’.
an evolutionary machine, he’d be one of the least successful. But as an individual conscious mind, he’d be the most successful… because his conscious mind would have achieved its programmed aim - of being happy.
‘We’ - our conscious minds - are trapped inside an evolutionary machine. Regardless of our achievements in the world, we are condemned to our unfair share of misery, disappointment, heartache and despair. We’re condemned to miss out on the sustained heights of delight and joy that our minds are capable of experiencing. But one day we’ll discover how to control our feelings, and then we’ll enjoy a quality of life never experienced by any human before us. We must not fear it:
Why Haven’t Aliens Visited the Earth Yet? There are 70 sextillion stars in the observable universe. 22 zeros.
But here’s the real reason. Before all those uncountable Aliens worked out the physics of how to do the “reaching out”, they worked out that there was no point.
There are millions of planets full of millions of lifeforms far more intelligent than we are. And they’re all in their pods with the dials cranked up to 11.
