In this blog post, we will consider whether the development of science and technology can bring sustainable happiness to humans, rather than momentary pleasure.
Probably everyone wants to be happy. That is why we have developed many civilizations for happiness since a very long time ago. Human instinctive desires have led us to pursue a better life, and this desire has become the driving force behind development, resulting in numerous innovations and discoveries. In particular, people generally believe that the development of science and technology is for the happiness of humans. As science has advanced and made our lives more convenient, thereby improving our quality of life, the development of science and technology has continued to be pursued by humankind, and science will also be an area in which we must continue to make efforts. Humans want a better environment, safer living, and longer-lasting health, and believe that all of these things will eventually lead to happiness. This belief stems from the expectation that science is not just about technological achievement, but that it has the ultimate goal of human happiness.
As such, there have been endless attempts to verify whether the efforts to develop science in human history are going in the right direction. Since the ultimate goal of scientific and technological development is the happiness of humanity, it may be natural to compare the degree of happiness in the past and the present to verify the legitimacy of scientific development. In particular, as the complexity and stressors of modern society have increased, there has been growing doubt as to whether technological progress is making us happier. But can we really express happiness in objective numbers and compare them?
I believe that happiness cannot be expressed in numbers. Therefore, it is impossible to compare the happiness of past societies with the happiness of present societies. It is also impossible to measure and quantify the happiness of individuals or society as a whole. The biggest reason for this is that it is obvious that happiness cannot be objectively represented by a clear indicator. Is it really possible to reduce human experience to a simple number? Measuring happiness is inherently difficult because the definition of happiness itself varies from person to person. Given the complexity and subjectivity of happiness, summarizing it in a single number inevitably leads to distortion.
However, those who believe that happiness can be measured in numbers may counter that there are already ways to measure happiness. In fact, there are already data that show happiness in numbers, such as surveys asking people whether they are happy, hormone measurements using human biochemical systems, acceleration sensors, and happiness indices that show how happy people are in different countries. However, these data are not considered appropriate because happiness cannot be quantified. So why is there no objective indicator for judging happiness? The answer to this question leads to the question of what the nature of happiness is.
What is happiness? Everyone wants to be happy, but it is difficult to define happiness and reach a unanimous agreement on it. The search for happiness has a long history, as long as the history of mankind, as much as the study of science, but it is difficult to get a clear answer to it. Ancient philosophers saw happiness as the ultimate destination of human life and emphasized various virtues and virtues to achieve it. On the other hand, in modern society, happiness is often considered to be more materialistic and immediate satisfaction. However, most ordinary people talk about happiness based on their own subjective feelings. Most people think that a pleasant feeling is happiness, and a sad feeling or something painful is the opposite, unhappiness. The criteria for judging happiness are only subjective moods and feelings, and there is no objective measure. This idea that happiness is a subjective feeling is based on liberalism. Liberalism says that how we feel determines whether something is good or bad, beautiful or ugly. Liberalism leaves most of the judgment to oneself. It makes us decide whether we are happy or unhappy based on our subjective feelings by listening to our inner voice, with our own strength, without the intervention of others. For this reason, we all generally think that the person who knows best whether we are happy or unhappy is ourselves.
What if happiness is really the same as pleasure, a subjective feeling of pleasure? Let’s take the neurotransmitter dopamine, which makes us feel good, for example. It is known that dopamine is mainly secreted when we are in love, especially when we have sex. That is why we generally say that we are happy when we are in love. However, dopamine is also secreted in other cases, such as when we take drugs or drink alcohol. If we accept this and say that pleasant emotions and happiness are the same, the question arises, “Is the core of happiness also present in drugs such as heroin?” I think this is an example that clearly shows that subjective feelings are not reliable.
Most religions and philosophies have very different views on happiness than liberalism. All religions trust in subjective feelings, but Buddhism in particular has systematically studied happiness. Buddhist happiness is completely different from subjective feelings. People try to feel happy by fulfilling their desires, but Buddhism says that the emotion of joy, which people actually feel, is very temporary and changes from moment to moment. Ultimately, the more we seek pleasant emotions to be happy, the further we are from happiness, which is the source of the suffering that Buddhism talks about. In Buddhist doctrine, the goal is to realize the impermanence of pursuing emotions through meditation and to stop desiring them. Buddha placed the pursuit of ultimate enlightenment, which is the pursuit of happiness, as meaningful rather than the pursuit of pleasure, which is a finite and insignificant happiness. According to this, true happiness can be found by observing one’s body and mind through meditation to see all emotions arise and disappear, and through this, to realize the impermanence of emotions. The Buddhist doctrine is that if we stop pursuing emotions, our inner peace will soon be achieved, and that is happiness.
Ultimately, according to Buddhist theory of happiness, it is right to pursue a pleasant emotional state and not to equate it with happiness, and true happiness lies in knowing what one really is. Emotion and happiness can be seen as completely different concepts. Emotion is temporary and changeable, while happiness refers to a more lasting and internal state. Ultimately, when measuring happiness, “emotion” It is incorrect to measure happiness, so the data presented above as measurements of happiness—the results of surveys asking people whether they are happy, hormone measurements using the human biochemical system, acceleration sensors, and happiness indices that indicate how happy people are in different countries—are merely numerical representations of the emotions that humans feel momentarily, so it is unreasonable to say that they measure happiness from the perspective of Buddhist theories of happiness. It can be said that happiness cannot be quantified because the essence of happiness is not an emotion.
Of course, it cannot be said that the Buddhist theory of happiness is the only correct answer to the nature of happiness. However, since there is a point of view on the happiness that humans ultimately pursue, and since there are other religions and philosophies that do not equate happiness with emotions, the claim that happiness can be expressed in numbers seems difficult to accept. The kind of happiness that we ultimately pursue through the advancement of science and technology may be more than just emotional pleasure. Therefore, it is difficult to avoid criticism that happiness measurement methods that focus on the momentary changes in emotions are not comprehensive enough.
In conclusion, I argue that happiness is a different concept from momentary emotions, and that is why happiness cannot be expressed as a clear indicator. Since the essence of happiness cannot be measured chemically or physically, it is impossible to objectively compare past and present happiness. In this regard, we need to think more carefully about whether the development of science and technology is bringing us true happiness. Exploring the definition of happiness more broadly and deeply will lead our lives in a better direction.
