Thomas Hettich’s Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind > Status Update

Alternative methods to a greater happiness (to improving biochemistry and being fulfilled) are offered by Buddhism. He describes the metaphor of the man standing on the shore trying to prevent the good waves from disintegrating and pushing back the bad waves. After days of trying, he gives up, sits down and is able to enjoy the beauty of the ocean and waves coming in.

He explains well that happiness is misleading, but never mentions "fulfilling" as a more proper word to aim for - "A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless less life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is." From a scientific standpoint, human life has no purpose - any meaning we ascribe to our lives is a delusion.

the male might not want to have sex in the first place and if the rush lasted too long, he might not want to go hunting and die of lack of interest in food.
Human happiness differs from person to person, on a scale from 0-10 some people are born with a cheerful biochemical system that allows mood swings between levels 6 and 10, stabilising at 8. Others have gloomy systems in the range 3-8 and stabilise at 5.

Measures of happiness from a biological standpoint doesn't measure against society-economic factors (like wealth and political freedom), but rather against biochemical and genetic factors. Our biochemical systems seem programmed to keep happiness levels relative constant. A short rush is possible, such as the reward of pleasant feelings to makes who spread their genes by having sex - without the rush, ...

Measures of happiness have shown that money matters (but only for those who have few means) and changes to someones health only matters for a short term (for example, when an accident happens). A healthy partnership and social ties are important for long-term happiness (an unhealthy partnership is detrimental). So although societies have become richer, the social fabric of families and communities has become weaker.

Historians have not been studying the history of happiness. It is not clear whether humans were happier in hunter-gatherer societies, as farmers hundreds of years ago, the Chinese opium addict. There is a lot of evidence that the industrial revolution is wrecking the planet and both nature and many animals are suffering more than maybe ever before. And maybe we ought to consider not only the happiness of humans.

The last decades have seen very little war between states. There are many reasons for this, they include atom bombs which would bring with it the price of suicide, should they be wielded, value moving from tangible resources to intangible ones such as tech workers that can just up and move away, peace dividends coming from trading with other countries and increasing own productivity.

The chapter 'Perpetuum Mobile' argues that revolutions happen all the time now. Whereas in pre-modern times this meant toppling governments, today this happens mostly peacefully. The time since WW2 has been the most peaceful in human history. The peace is largely a consequence of the larger state (no canings in schools, violence against wives banned, state-run courts and police forces).

The chapter 'Perpetuum Mobile' argues that revolutions happen all the time now. Whereas in pre-modern times this meant toppling governments, today this happens mostly peacefully. The time since WW2 has been the most peaceful in human history. The peace is largely a consequence of the larger state (no canings in schools, violence against wives banned, state-run courts and police forces).

The chapter 'Imagined Communities' makes the case that as our local community has whittled, the emotional void has been filled by a much stranger nation community (such as being Swiss, Danish, Thai, etc.) and our consumer community (being vegetarian, fashionable, outdoorsy, etc.).