This is such a cool and interesting post. And it totally helps understand why things for humans seem like they’re materially getting better in many ways, but our culture involves a lot of people saying a lot of negative things about how humanity is doing. I love that you’re challenging the assumption that people accurately remember, or accurately report their memory of, their own happiness! This is super smart and matches my own experience of what it’s like to be a human. Often, I’m not super sure how happy I’ve been over the past week, or the past day. When someone asks me, it feels like a hard question. All I can remember is how I feel right now. And even that can sometimes be hard to articulate.
And thank you for mentioning that GDP growth could still be bad due to its effects on animals!
This is such a cool and interesting post. And it totally helps understand why things for humans seem like they’re materially getting better in many ways, but our culture involves a lot of people saying a lot of negative things about how humanity is doing. I love that you’re challenging the assumption that people accurately remember, or accurately report their memory of, their own happiness! This is super smart and matches my own experience of what it’s like to be a human. Often, I’m not super sure how happy I’ve been over the past week, or the past day. When someone asks me, it feels like a hard question. All I can remember is how I feel right now. And even that can sometimes be hard to articulate.
And thank you for mentioning that GDP growth could still be bad due to its effects on animals!
Thanks, Alene! I appreciate that :)