

Happiness Button (A Parable) - felixc
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/happiness_button/

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karzeem
I'm with him on this thought experiment all the way up to the last paragraph:
"I can't think of any imaginary situation in which long term happiness could
come from other people. The best you can hope for is that other people won't
thwart your efforts to make yourself happy."

On the contrary. Almost completely, happiness _is_ other people.

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zupatol
Yes, it almost isn't a thought experiment. The only difference is that
friendship is not as easy as pressing a button. The button would only work if
people you like would press it, and it would have to stay pressed for a while
before having any effect. This is enough for many people to be lonely,
regardless of any irrational social rules about pressing buttons.

This morning my wife flew back to her country for a 3 week holiday. I suppose
I'm going to recover soon but right now I'm still having depressive thoughts.

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chegra84
He is actually talking about warm fuzzy(any sort of affirmation not sex in
particular)

The original allegory was written by Claude Steiner.

Here is the original <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v683T1GVS1U>

if that is annoying read the story here
<http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm>

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shorbaji
Interesting.

I would imagine the right to pressing button or having your button pressed
will be institutionalized,e.g. through a Church or Government. Doing that
freely and often - before some sort of permission, license or ceremony - would
be stigmatized and possibly outlawed.

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jcl
I could see that happening, particularly because -- as Scott points out --
when you are sitting around being happy, you aren't doing anything
particularly productive. Cultures with a particular set of rules regarding
button-pushing would be naturally more materially wealthy than those without,
although not necessarily as happy.

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edo
With a happiness button on my forehead, I would immediately start doing A/B
tests on the conversion rate of 'friends passing by.

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jerf
If you want to take the story semi-seriously, it really depends on the
definition of "happiness". If it was like an electrical stimulation to certain
parts of the brain (colloquially called the "pleasure center" even if that's
not accurate), the natural outcome would be pretty much the entire species
pairing up and holding each other's buttons until death by dehydration.

As others observe, if this is a metaphor for sex, it is a terrible one. A
metaphor useful to the extent it has similarities with the target of the
metaphor and this deviates in numerous critical ways that render any resulting
"insights" completely irrelevant to the question of sex. Numerous, numerous,
numerous.

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binarymax
I also imagine that there would be a huge market for selling fashionable
accessories that conceal the happiness button.

Some (most) governments/religions/cultures would create and enforce laws to
force you to conceal it.

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derefr
Now imagine that, instead, people _couldn't_ avoid pushing your button—in
fact, that the very act of being around other people pushed both your button
and theirs. That would be a world where indeed "long term happiness could come
from other people."

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tfh
is he talking about sex here? Or is it just me...

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gn
He thinks he is talking about sex, but there are some important point he
overlooks. Most people would usually want their button pressed by members of
the other sex. Most people naturally close to you (parents, siblings, cousins)
would be out of the question as pushers of your button.

Also, over millions and millions of years, certain aspects of hominine
reproduction (large heads, long gestation times, preposterously long
childhood, staggering maternal mortality) and simple statistics would have
conspired to make women very, very picky about when and by whom they want to
press their buttons. At the same time they would have conspired to make men
want their buttons pressed as often as possible, and by pretty much any girl
with a neck pulse.

The availability of people of the desired sex willing to press your button
would be your default main source of serenity and self-respect. It would take
experience and hard work for you to create other sources of fulfillment for
yourself. It would be natural for immature, stupid, or bitter people to spend
enormous amounts of energy trying to control access to other people's buttons.

If you could press your neighbor's button without risk of adverse side effects
(killing months of their productivity, having them lose one of their four of
five shots at producing healthy offspring, making them die in childbirth)
offering someone to pleasure of a press of their button would be as harmless
as offering them the pleasure of a smile, or of a glass of drink. There would
be certain rules of etiquette, but there wouldn't usually be much debilitating
drama.

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Pistos2
I suppose one would not derive deep, meaningful happiness from the button,
because the happiness would have a hollow source. Sort of like the difference
between the elation of scoring a goal, or the joy of reading a good book, or
the merriment had when spending time with long-time friends, versus the high
of taking drugs. Enriching fulfilment versus empty thrill.

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tgandrews
I'd just lie with my head on my desk and be satisified with life. But I'm not
sure if I'd actually BE happy. I may feel it but it would be rather shallow.

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gvb
Apparently the buttons have Digital Rights Management so that a desk cannot
press the button, only digits can.

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greenlblue
Hilarious and poignant.

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detcader
So it's like sorting algorithms? Or...?

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gaius
Slightly unrelated: A site that has a "share" button really ought to try and
see what their page looks like when posted to Facebook. All I get on FB is the
URL, no text exerpt and no icon.

