Is Happiness Just Pleasure?
Imagine that I am a brilliant scientist and I have invited you to participate in one of my laboratory experiments. I escort you to my laboratory and show you all my scientific equipment.
In front of us is my latest experiment, it looks like a telephone booth with a small chair inside.
I explain to you that the telephone booth is part of a happiness experiment.
The telephone booth contains a device called a Hedonator that emits radio waves; the radio waves penetrate the brain of the person who sits in the telephone booth. The radio waves are tuned to directly stimulate a person’s pleasure centers.
The Hedonator really works. Any person who sits in the telephone booth with the Hedonator experiences massive amounts of pleasure. The person experiences total pleasure everywhere in their body.
I ask you if you want to enter the telephone booth and participate in my experiment.
I also tell you that 100% of the people who have previously entered the telephone booth have chosen never to leave the booth. In fact, I have a warehouse filled with 20 other telephone booths filled with people on life support systems.
What do you do?
Do you participate in the experiment and experience total pleasure for the rest of your life, or do you walk away?
April 21st, 2007 at 4:09 am
Your blog was mentioned on The Happiness Project. So glad I found it! I so appreciate reading about your exploration of happiness and have been pondering so many of these things myself.
Just finished Byron Katie’s new book, so enjoyed seeing her mentioned in one of your entries.
Thanks.
April 21st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I run, don’t walk, away!
Bad stuff is how we learn and get wise. There’s a point to it, which is for some of us, some small comfort.
Being happy all the time is like trying to turn yourself into a sausage – not smart and just as pointless.
Real rewards come from real effort, and that’s how you get satisfaction – I think satisfaction is a very important component of true happiness.
Great question!
Also, I have put a link to your site on my blog. I would be honored if you would allow me to keep it; I really enjoy your insights. If you want, I will remove your blog link. You have my email, and my email is also posted on my site as well.
Take care, Swan
April 29th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Thank you for contributing this article to the Living by Design Blog Carnival – it has been included in this week’s edition and is now live on my site.
with best wishes
Ananga
August 29th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Interesting question. personally i would pass on the opportunity. Pleasure is all fine but it is distinct from happiness, which is the logical consideration of pleasurable experiences. If one were to step into the machine i would expect that the machine would stimulate the production of chemicals responsible for pleasure. Like all inputs, the more you have, the more you need to get the same ‘high’. I see that this machine would need to continually ‘up the dose’ to the patients in order to maintain the same effect. Eventually their physiall bodies would not be able to cope with all the increasing pressure and they would die. I found it interesting that 7 year olds were able to grasp the concept of heppiness being pleasure mediated by logical thought when presented in the context of a chocolate bar. If they eat chocolate they feel pleasure, too much chocolate and the pleasure turns to the pain of a stomach ache. If their pleasure is mediated by logical thought, the thought of the consequences of their actionsl, and they choose the actions that will minimise pain and enhance pleasure, then they will have happiness.