X-Message-Number: 10160 Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 12:35:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Happiness On Sat, 1 Aug 1998, Brook Norton wrote: > At the most basic level, I believe the brain is hardwired to always choose > to increase happiness. At the most basic level, you can't act to try to > become unhappy. Its impossible. Many neurotic people would disagree. Neurosis could be loosely defined as compulsive behavior that results in unhappiness. Suppose, for instance, a man suffered a miserable relationship with a domineering mother, when he was a child. In later life he finds himself choosing female lovers who recapitulate the miserable relationship of his childhood. He may be hardwired with a survival instinct (which is what I think you are getting at when you talk about happiness), but he has been PROGRAMMED to behave self-destructively. The crucial point here is that he believes (as you do) that he is behaving with free will. He actively seeks out the people who will make him miserable--and doesn't know how to break this pattern. You also ignore the well documented fact that some people enjoy pain. You may claim that this is a form of pleasure; but in that case, for these people, you would have to say that pain does not exist. In fact the problem is far more complex, and I fear that by projecting your own set of life-rules on the rest of the population, you are making an error which is seen often in the cryonics community: assuming that everyone else is as smart and rational as you are. This is not necessarily true. > and the more I learned, the more cryonics looked like it would work. That's funny. The more I learned about cryonics, the more I came to the conclusion that cryonics in its current state probably would NOT work. That's why I felt a need to do something about it. Evidently you responded to sources different from mine. I'm curious to know what gave you your feeling of confidence. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10160