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Comment by praptak | Hacker News Reader

> Of course this type of thinking would immediately hamper progress everywhere.

Yes. Would it be a problem though? If everybody is happy with what they have, then progress is unnecessary or even harmful.

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There are certain parts of the world where this type of thinking is common. If you can eat today and the sun is shining, why work harder?

Then next year, a draught and famine strikes, killing thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

Is it a problem? Is it harmful? Depends on your philosphy.

Worrying about and preparing for ever more elusive contingencies can be poison in itself. Kafka's short story "The bunker" pictures this state of mind very well.

Perhaps you're referring to "The Burrow?"

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burrow_(short_story)

Yes, thanks for the correction.

There's a ceiling to happiness, though, that's predicated on your tolerance of death and suffering around you. You can't punch through it without advanced technology. But I guess people could instead live their lives stoned on their local mushrooms to achieve the same feelings of happiness.

You could try some ancient Buddhist technology - meditation. A ten day retreat feels very similar to psychedelics but you can function normally.

On the one hand, it sounds interesting. On the other hand, it sounds like ten days of opportunity cost.

I feel that psychedelics and spending all the time in meditation are just low-tech versions of wireheading.

Practical wireheading does not look achievable anytime near: https://qualiacomputing.com/2016/08/20/wireheading_done_righ...

I'd say that meditation is the best version of wireheading currently known to humanity. I admit that due to obvious problems with measuring happiness, this hypothesis is hard to test.

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