we are capable of experience pleasure and pain, in varying degrees
they are separate things
(it is possible to experience both at the same time)
experiences result in pleasure and pain
we desire pleasure, we want to avoid pain
~ almost by definition:
things we want, are things that are pleasurable;
things we avoid, are things that are painful
in practice, due to biology
ex.
hunger => pain => eat food to avoid hunger
sex => pleasure => have more sex
but heavily interpreted through our psyche (and culturalized beliefs)
status is good (will bring pleasure), status is gained by x, pursue X
our reward and pain circuitry is dynamic (changes over time)
hedonic adaptation (same things become less pleasurable)
pain dissociation/adaptation (painful things become less painful) (~exposure therapy)
social compliance
we are social animals, we want to please others, but the external world changes
we want to maximize total-pleasure-over-time and minimize total-pain-over-time
maximizing short-term pleasure does not maximize total-pleasure-over-time
we have analytical brains that can model the world and futures
imperfectly (on many levels: how the world works, and how what will please us, and various irrational cognitive biases/illusions)
we do our best to maximize pleasure-over-time and minimize pain-over-time with incomplete information, limited resources, and imperfect reasoning
the "solution" to the "optimization problem" is not the same for everyone
biology differs
(but at same time, is similar within some bounds because of shared biology)
upbringing differs (and it affects )
many people have communicated various theories/models on their "solution"
won't work for everyone (people are different) or continuously (people and the world changes)
may just be local optima
some are enshrined as philosophies / religions / culture
because of our shared biology, there are some near universal "truths" that can be uncovered
(~ Sam Harris' - The Moral Landscape)
avoid hunger, headaches, etc.
experiments may even uncover near-universal value functions
~ 1 hr of migraine headache == 10 hr of hunger
we have some rough ideas of this now
ex. pleasure has diminishing returns (~ square root)
ex. we prefer to avoid pain to pleasure (at a 2:1 ratio)
capitalism muddies the water via self-interested "demand generating" messaging
"you will be happier if ___; buy ___"
(you can't trust it)
part 2: community
there are many of us pursuing this optimization
there are limited shared resources that are involved
space, clean air, clean water, food, ...
in effect, we are competing
but, collaboration can result in a better outcome
what is "better"?
if every individual would prefer A than B because they unambiguously always get more pleasure and less pain, than A is "obviously" (uncontestedly) better than B
but what about A is "on average" better than B?
gets into Utilitarianism
an individual can do the "hedonistic calculus" for themselves, but, how do we do it amongst many individuals
is pleasure and pain a commodity
(ie. are we all using the same currency; or, all different currencies)
(is one more unit of pleasure for person A equivalent to person B)
is it linear?
(is giving one unit of pleasure to someone with 10 units the same as to someone with 2 units?)
(is one unit of pleasure equal one less unit of pain?)
"how do we coordinate" is the central problem of humanity