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Why are humans never satisfied? [video]
- davidsvida 3y agoan amazing POV from Agustín Fuentes
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- k7vin 3y agowe can learn to be though.
- karmakaze 3y agoThat would be a waste and a shame. We should be satisfied with certain things like stable and equitable sharing of limited resources. Other things define being human in that we need to have pursuits, learn, build. A society without those is losing to machines by becoming them.
- TheUndead96 3y agoSatisfaction is inversely correlated with the propagation of genes.
- doctorh 3y ago"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. ... If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthy pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ... I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and help others to do the same." - CS Lewis
- wallfacer 3y agoThe entire argument follows from a single incredible, unsubstantiated assumption, that “creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.”
- mach1ne 3y agoBeing attributed to CS Lewis I’d hope it’s more metaphorical than theoretical.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoAs an atheist, I'm mostly glad I never met the man. I think that if I had, remaining an atheist might be more difficult than it is. Even reading his works seems risky at times. Not that his arguments are particularly rational, mind you. He was just that damned good.
- feoren 3y agoFunny: as an atheist, I have no a-priori goal to remain an atheist. In fact I would love it if someone could come along and convince me that their religion was correct. Imagine how comforting that would be: the surety of an afterlife! Alas, it is not to be, because even written in C.S. Lewis's flowery language, it's all obviously bullshit. Reading Tolkein may make me wish I lived in Rivendell but it's never going to convince me to worship Eru Illuvatar.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoIt does actually sound like you do have this a-priori goal. Additionally, it seems that you might have bad taste in literature.
- feoren 3y ago> It does actually sound like you do have this a-priori goal I don't wake up in the morning and say to myself "I sure hope I continue to believe that the Earth is round by the end of the day!" That's crazy: I have no vested interest in that belief. I believe the Earth is round because the evidence is overwhelming and the contra-evidence is unconvincing. I'm not worried that someone is going to come along and erroneously convince me the world is actually flat -- I trust my own judgement more than that. Unless, of course, the world actually is flat, in which case I'd want someone to convince me of it! It's the truth I have a vested interest in, whatever that truth actually is. > Additionally, it seems that you might have bad taste in literature It sounds like it's important to you that you make sure to not like mainstream things, so that you can look down on people who do. I encourage you to get over this. The more things you let yourself enjoy, the more fun you have in life. And you'll like yourself more too, knowing you're not being as much of a condescending prick. Trust me; I've been there.
- knorker 3y agoThe most successful life form on a planet will probably always ask themselves this. Because if we'd been happy remaining primitive then we wouldn't have become advanced. We were not happy after inventing technology (not with technology either, but we thought we would be). Evolutionarily: The people who were happy without children, or another child, or a second wife to make more children, were not as successful in propagating their genes. Why were peacocks not satisfied with a small slightly less colorful tail?
- Towaway69 3y ago> The most successful life form on a planet will probably always ask themselves this. I wonder what answer the dinosaurs had? Perhaps they were happy becoming the fuel of our technology millions of years later. _Most successful_ begs the question on what scale that would be?
- knorker 3y agoDinosaurs didn't become oil. Marine plants and animals did.
- AlexandrB 3y ago> Why were peacocks not satisfied with a small slightly less colorful tail? This is a weird analogy for all kinds of reasons. Not the least of which is that the extravagant tail (among other things) makes the bird highly specialized to a few environmental niches. Compare this to the humble rat that has been successful in just about any environment on the planet.
- randrus 3y agoSo ... the satisfied drop out of the gene pool and we're sampling from the lineage of the unsatisfied. Survivorship bias?
- knorker 3y agoYeah, with a bit of anthropic principle mixed in.
- p0pcult 3y agoBecause we have the ability to think counterfactually; that is, we can always imagine better worlds.
- candlemas 3y agoProbably because there are other people you are always comparing yourself to.
- monkeynotes 3y agoSome humans live in a state of satisfaction because they have dispensed with desire. This is one of the principles of buddhist enlightenment.
- amatic 3y agoI thought so too, but it makes more sense to me that "stop desiring things" is a koan, and not a literal instruction. A koan is like a little paradox, a word problem that a student needs to solve before being allowed to the next "level". The solution is that you cannot stop desiring. Even if you try very hard, you will still have, at the very least, the desire to stop desiring. Source: I've been listening to Alan Watts
- monkeynotes 3y ago> Even if you try very hard This is the paradox, while you are "trying" as you have observed, you are still desiring. Letting go of desire is effortless.
- adversaryIdiot 3y agoThats so paradoxically cryptic haha
- shrimp_emoji 3y agoIt's zen meditation stuff. You have to accept, but detach from, the feeling of desire. You're not trying to fight it; you accept but cease to identify with it. The monk feels the flames consuming his flesh, but he ceases to identify with the sensation, allowing him to sit there, motionless, before dying. (Granted, that's some hardcore non-identification.)
- everdrive 3y agoI’ve yet to watch the video, however I’ve always assumed that people are never satisfied because satisfaction would not be very useful in our natural environment. Given that resources will almost always be constrained, satisfaction serves no purpose. Striving for more food, more status, more connection is always more useful practically speaking than being satisfied with what you have. In fact, the question “why aren’t people satisfied?” Assumes that there’s any particular reason why people would be happy. Fully Satisfied people lose their strongest motivations. There’s not much evolutionary pressure to ensuring that people can stay happy or stay satisfied.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- incomingpain 3y agoWhat happens if you were to be satisfied? You have sex once and then roll over into bliss, until a bear comes by and eats you. Thus all satisfying things must be fleeting. What are the consequences of never being able to be satisfied? You desire greater and greater things to please you. Eventually you must throw people to the lions in order to satisfy the masses. Eventually you find yourself on reddit watching people die. The other way exists as well. If sexual desire you're looking at porn on reddit. If food there's food porn as well. You're always seeking the next best.
- laratied 3y ago[dead]
- MarkovCain 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]