27 replies to this topic

[Docktor_Worm]

Here's one of those dumb hypothetical situations that's been stuck in my head lately. What if someone invented a substance, a drug if you will, that simply made you happier? I guess it'd like any other drug, but with no side-effects or any of that unpleasantness associated with narcotics. Would people accept it and the obvious advantages concurred, or would they reject it for interfering their perception of reality?

[Tom Henrik]

I would reject it for personal use. If people wanted it, let them have their fun - but the day I need a tablet to make me feel happy, is going to be the most depressing day in my life.

[taikara]

No drugs for me.

Sadness/misery is part of what makes us grow as people.

How would you learn that a fire will burn you if you can't feel it? You could see the damage, maybe smell it, but it's not the same as actually feeling it.

Sadness is just our mind's way of telling us that we need to stay out of the emotional fire. It's the early-warning system to even worse pain

Unless we just ignore it and don't get out of the fire, then it just gets worse.

[Tulac]

Have you read Brave New World recently? Cause that's totally from that book.
I would probably use it in a same manner I use alcohol today, on special occasions, I would not make myself addicted to it.

[Havell]

Yeah, special occasions only.  Even if such a drug wouldn't cause any physical dependance to form, a users life would inevitably come to revolve around it as their main source of happiness (look at any person's life, aside from work, their life will centre upon their main source of enjoyment).

[Docktor_Worm]

I guess the bluntly, this thread is about " if you're happy, does anything else matter" who lives a better life, a happy man who accomplished nothing or the opposite

[DeathDude]

Nah no drugs for me either, it can be tempting at times in our lives to really wish for such a product, but sometimes its that pain and sorrow that we have to experience that just makes us grow and become stronger people. If there was a product like this, that could just make you escape the hardships of life, then you would never grow, you would just be taking the easy way out.

Definitely think there are times when it can be overwhelming but still sometimes best to deal with it in your own way, rather than turn to a drug like that.

[Frodo]

Definately not.

We need the bad stuff as well as the good stuff.  How can we appreciate the pleasures of life, if we don't have bad times to compare it to?  

[Japofran]

And the "Sounds Most like a Spambot Ad Thread" goes to...

Me neither. It's not that bad experiences make you learn, although that may be another way of saying it.

Docktor_Worm, on Feb 19 2007, 08:28 PM, said:

I guess the bluntly, this thread is about " if you're happy, does anything else matter" who lives a better life, a happy man who accomplished nothing or the opposite

Exactly. Let's put it this way: it's a known fact repeated by intellectuals of all ages that intelligence/wisdom doesn't bring happiness, even the contrary sometimes. Take an intelligent and miserable person and propose him to get lobotomized. Maybe you won't find it difficult to convince him that it would make him happier --although I guess intelligent people needn't be miserable, but an idiot can be made happy with trivialities and the former needs something more transcendent. But even if he's convinced that he'd be happier, he won't consent.

Such a drug --just like any other-- would turn you into a mere lump of meat, you'd be as happy as if a mild electric current was injected into the appropriate region of your brain. You wouln't be living as a human being any longer.

[Juni Ori]

Japo

But to the question, I'm sure many people, if not most, would use it. Personally no, I wouldn't, I live from misery.

[PrejudiceSucks]

Well yes... of course I would.

[Sean]

I'd rather not, if I'm not happy enough to natrually feel happy I don't want a pill to solve my problems!

[BeefontheBone]

Japofran, on Feb 20 2007, 03:24 AM, said:

Exactly. Let's put it this way: it's a known fact repeated by intellectuals of all ages that intelligence/wisdom doesn't bring happiness, even the contrary sometimes. Take an intelligent and miserable person and propose him to get lobotomized. Maybe you won't find it difficult to convince him that it would make him happier --although I guess intelligent people needn't be miserable, but an idiot can be made happy with trivialities and the former needs something more transcendent. But even if he's convinced that he'd be happier, he won't consent.

Ever read Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes? It's a great exploration of that idea (well, the reverse in fact).

[Eagle of Fire]

Quote

but with no side-effects or any of that unpleasantness associated with narcotics.

The answer to this question is completely irrevelant because such a thing cannot exist.

Even the best "drug" which can even come close to what you are describing have side effects. The name is "love", and the "side effects" is your wife/husband, a baby and ultimately a family.

Either you think of those "side effects" as good or bad is also irrevelant. The point is, it can be either a good or a bad effect depending on the point of view of different people... Which mean that there will never be a concensus, which then lead back to the idea that such an utopian drug with no side effects simply can't exist...

I hope I'm not blowing the bubble of anybody around here...

[BeefontheBone]

Might I interject that love doesn't automatically lead to marriage or families. Sometimes it has no negative side effects