[UltraIncredible]

If you could choose how your whole life would happen before you lived it, would you rather live a relatively happy life where you're ignorant and deluded about what's going on and how anything works, or a relatively unhappy life where you have a thorough and accurate understanding of the world? Assume that in either case there would be no improvement of the negative qualities and no decline in the positive qualities.

[karenann33]

I think I know what you are asking but I'm not sure. There was a time when I wished for blissful ignorance but these days I've changed my mind. I've learned through therapy and lots of self help books that I have the power over the miserable part of knowledge. I can use my knowledge to control my thoughts. Being miserable is a choice. It's not always easy to choose happiness but it can be done.

[JC22]

option d

blissful knowledge!

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by karenann33 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I think I know what you are asking but I'm not sure. There was a time when I wished for blissful ignorance but these days I've changed my mind. I've learned through therapy and lots of self help books that I have the power over the miserable part of knowledge. I can use my knowledge to control my thoughts. Being miserable is a choice. It's not always easy to choose happiness but it can be done.

Clearly happiness and knowledge are not mutually exclusive, and knowledgeable people can in fact be quite happy. For that matter, it's also possible to be both ignorant and miserable. BUT...given the two choices in the original post, the choice you choose says something about you and what you value. It's kind of like a glass half full / glass half empty question.

---------- Post added 08-03-2012 at 08:30 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by JC22 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	option d blissful knowledge!

More like
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
knowledge, amirite

[Phaze228]

Option B.
Bliss is overrated. And ignorance is the death of humanity.

[Tactical Panda]

Some knowledge isn't that interesting.
Some ignorance is crippling.

It depends. Does it even relate to anything I care about or would be intelligent to heed, or is it going to be a data dump or something utterly boring and pointless?

[Jade333]

I mentioned once before that life is made up of happy moments. Not about achieving happiness. If we're striving for pure happiness then we're setting ourselves up for some serious disappointing and unnecessary failure. I'll take my mind over the ignorance. We've already got enough ignorant people around here don't we? I'm quite certain we don't need anymore.

---------- Post added 08-03-2012 at 11:19 PM ----------

Originally Posted by UltraIncredible To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Clearly happiness and knowledge are not mutually exclusive, and knowledgeable people can in fact be quite happy. For that matter, it's also possible to be both ignorant and miserable. BUT...given the two choices in the original post, the choice you choose says something about you and what you value. It's kind of like a glass half full / glass half empty question. ---------- Post added 08-03-2012 at 08:30 PM ---------- More like To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. knowledge, amirite

Depends what my glass is half full with. Is my glass full of shit? Then it had better be half empty.

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by Tactical Panda To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Some knowledge isn't that interesting. Some ignorance is crippling. It depends. Does it even relate to anything I care about or would be intelligent to heed, or is it going to be a data dump or something utterly boring and pointless?

Assume you would be massively knowledgeable, like top 1% of the population, but that mood-wise you would feel like shit most of the time.

Happiness of
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
but intelligence of a Dan Quayle or Jessica Simpson vs. knowledge/intelligence of a Da Vinci but emotional state of a Kurt Cobain or Sylvia Plath.

[Apex]

An existence centered around ignorance, can hardly be called an existence in my book.

[Typhon]

The knowledge of a Da Vinci for sure. I may not end up happy, but I'll be productive and wealthy at the least.

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by Apex To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	An existence centered around ignorance, can hardly be called an existence in my book.

So the unexamined life is not worth living?

[Jade333]

	Originally Posted by UltraIncredible To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	So the unexamined life is not worth living?

Absolutely it is. But, if we're all like Jessica Simpson, no one is going to be examining anything other than their shoes to wear for the day.

[Apex]

	Originally Posted by UltraIncredible To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	So the unexamined life is not worth living?

Correct, because you are merely existing, observation and examination are the things that make life worth living, and play a major role in how we live our life. How will you create something new or live up to you full potential if you are not willing to learn, and if you cant do that whats the point of living

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by Jade333 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I mentioned once before that life is made up of happy moments. Not about achieving happiness. If we're striving for pure happiness then we're setting ourselves up for some serious disappointing and unnecessary failure.

True, but some people have more happy moments than others. I would liken "achieving happiness" to achieving financial stability, but with stability of your mood. There will be off periods still and it's not irreversible, but you can probably get your average mood pretty high, or at least higher than it was when you were miserable all the time.

	Originally Posted by Jade333 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Depends what my glass is half full with. Is my glass full of shit?

If you're drinking Budweiser it is.

---------- Post added 08-03-2012 at 11:43 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by Apex To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Correct, because you are merely existing, observation and examination are the things that make life worth living, and play a major role in how we live our life. How will you create something new or live up to you full potential if you are not willing to learn, and if you cant do that whats the point of living

Do animals have a point of living?

[Jade333]

	Originally Posted by UltraIncredible To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	True, but some people have more happy moments than others. I would liken "achieving happiness" to achieving financial stability, but with stability of your mood. There will be off periods still and it's not irreversible, but you can probably get your average mood pretty high, or at least higher than it was when you were miserable all the time. If you're drinking Budweiser it is.

Well then the subjective matter here is what we all believe brings happy moments. If its just financial stability, then most can achieve that, unless we're vegetables. Even Jessica Simpson.

[Apex]

	Do animals have a point of living?

Yes, to sustain us, so we may live long enough to accomplish these things.

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by Jade333 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Well then the subjective matter here is what we all believe brings happy moments. If its just financial stability, then most can achieve that, unless we're vegetables. Even Jessica Simpson.

Oh I don't mean it's financial stability that necessarily brings happiness. I meant it as an analogy to mood. Poor people long to someday be financially stable just as depressed people long to someday be happy (or to be emotionally stable). One goal involves reconfiguring your life so that you're making enough money, another goal involves reconfiguring your brain so that it's making enough "happy chemicals" (serotonin, dopamine, etc.) . Neither goal is too abstract to accomplish, although people may be more unrealistic about finding happiness, like if they imagine it as a final, irreversible destination rather than a continuing process. And there's no one-size-fits all solution for it; different people are made happy by different things, I definitely agree with you on that.

[Artio]

This is the redpill versus bluepill question again, isn't it? Miserable knowledge and understanding, definitely.

[UltraIncredible]

	Originally Posted by Apex To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Yes, to sustain us, so we may live long enough to accomplish these things.

What about if humans all die out but there are still animals left? And they're all really stupid until the universe is destroyed from heat death?

[Ender]

Well considering that I'm already ignorant about tons of stuff, I don't think I'd mind continuing to be ignorant about, for example, the degree of suffering of people in third world countries. Wouldn't want to know that just so that I can say I'm knowledgeable.

So absence of knowledge is fine with me. I just don't like the idea of being deceived, like, "Here is a pill that says you are happy when in actuality the world around you is literally on fire and burning to the ground as we speak."

[Purgatid]

I percieve this as a false dilemma, thus I voted that I have another option. But OP, I must say, that does not mean I think I'm smarter than you. Just that from what I have come to understand of the world so far, understanding the world means you can choose what value your surroundings have. Thus, if you understand the world and what happiness is, you can only remain unhappy if you activly choose to be unhappy. Having that knowledge will make you happy.

But lets say I have complete knowledge, yet are tortured for the entirety of my life, then I would indeed be unhappy. Unfortunatly, the brain might refuse to dispense serotonine if you are in pain. In some ways, you can compensate, but I doubt any one person is able to do so for an entire life span. In that case, I would rather be ignorant and happy.

Because in the end - we want intelligence because of its utility to produce happiness (aquiring things we want, removing those we do not want), and if the intellect if not conductive towards that purpose, then it is useless to us.

[bales33]

This is a forum for INTJ so I'm gonna guess most answer like me and choose to take the miserable knowledge.

[busenmann]

Bein stupid sound fun...

[mosfet]

So busenmann, now you're being funny!

[Sk8ordude]

Nobody escapes ignorance so you might as well be happy.