Wherein lies happiness?

My philosophy is that if a Zen Buddhist is not happy and a narcissistic westerner is, then let me be a narcissistic westerner.

So, the question becomes, "Wherein lies happiness?"

On a practical, realistic level, happiness is an emotional state. We cannot stay perpetually happy, but we can make happiness more frequent and attainable by increasing our self-worth and by being more active/extroverted.

The western flaw of narcissism is the practice of increasing self-worth through economic possession. Not everyone does this, but at least 50% of westerners do - they buy things for two predominant reasons: to feel the joy of possession, and to obtain status points in a group.

Other forms of improving self-worth include mental, artistic, spiritual, and physical competition.

These are all competition based - we are valuable and deserving because we are better than others.

If you suck, you can always create your own category and win - such as Mountain Bikers Over 200-Pounds, or spiritual leader of your own religion.

The second method of happiness (being more active/extroverted) has confirmation from several independent sources - active/extroverted people are happier than reserved/introverted people.

A more specific attack on Buddhism is the pointlessness of trying to make a supernova from a light bulb: it is the wrong tool for the job. The human brain cannot attain enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a vague concept, but for my purpose, I will define it as an extremely high level of intellectual and emotional understanding. More moderate forms of these two ingredients also are required for general consciousness - we cannot say something is conscious unless it has some degree of intellectual and emotional capacity.

Reality requires and is defined by consciousness. A universe without consciousness is meaningless and therefore not real. Events that do not affect my consciousness are not meaningful and therefore not real. Practically speaking, an entire physical universe needs to exist for my specific consciousness to exist within my physical body - the physics, the chemistry, the gravity, the biological evolution, etc, etc. Put another way, the degree to which something must be a certain way so that my consciousness exists is the degree to which that thing is real.

The problem is, our brains are the product of evolution. It's purpose is not enlightenment, it is reproduction. It is an appendage that falls into the same category as peacock feathers, bright plumage, and other appendages of sexual selection. There is no benefit to the enormous tail feathers of a peacock except that it attracts mates. It is sexy to peahens. The same is true for intelligence - beyond the power of a coyote brain, more power is pointless. Larger brains actually make us more vulnerable - larger head on infants cause birthing problems, the long development phase of the brain makes childhood very dangerous, and the complexity of the brain makes more room for errors. Nonetheless, men and women around the world prefer mates who have a good sense of humor and are enjoyable to be around. Being entertaining requires intelligence, and entertaining is sexy. Misfiring intelligence, however, is boring.

So, my point here is that we have evolved to be entertainers - to show off our worth through our intellectual abilities. Athletic intelligence included...

The entertainment industry is pushing the envelope of technology. Pornography was one of the hardest thrusters into the depths cyberspace. Video games drive the increases in computing power. People watch, on average 20+ hours of tv per week - that is half a work week... And that is just TV as an entertainment industry...

My grand conclusion here is that our biological craving for entertainment is the driving factor for the development of technology and, eventually, artificial life. Artificial life is the next phase of reality.