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On Thu, May 24, 2007 at 07:58:56PM -0300, Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
> Mike Hord wrote:
> 
> >> Per capita energy consumption is an interesting issue. So is the number
> >> of "capitas".
> > 
> > Ah, there's the REAL question!
> > 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Watt_society
> 
> "Switzerland itself, currently using an average of around 5,000 watts, was
> last a 2000-watt society in the 1960s."
> 
> When you think about it... are we that much more happy than we would have
> been in 1960 (might have been a bit longer ago in the US :) ?
> 
> What's wrong with living like the Swiss in 1960? Why do we need so much
> more resources now? (I know, the answer is "because we can", but the
> question is more a rhetorical one...)

Don't go down that rabbit hole...

I've read that one of things modern psychology has found is that
happyness is basically fixed at birth. It'll go up and down due to local
events, births, deaths, jobs, relationships, successes, failures, but in
the long run it pretty much always returns to your baseline level no
matter what you do.

So basically, yeah, we're no happier than in 1960, we're also no happier
than in 1900, or even -30,000

Of course, my interpretation of it is that we've evolved to have a
stable outlook, be it generally happy or generally unhappy, and "growth"
of some kind increases it. Makes sense from an evolutionary perspective,
no reason to get content with what you have, might as well always be
striving for more.

So how do you be happier over the long run?


Constantly acellerating growth.


Glad I'm in the computer industry...

- -- 
http://petertodd.ca
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