My mini conclusion for the little book that I've read about happiness.
The fact that we feel happy is because we plan and foresee futures that we like.
And this happiness is drawn from the past experiences that we had.
So, actually, we need both a Past and a Future to really feel happy.
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Our brain has got 2 operations that involved planning.
One is the ability to Next (not the cigarette); and the verb is called nexting.
This sub-concious activity allows us to apple.
See. it anticipates; the obvious experiment is as above.
When we see something ('apple') that we didn't expect, our brain momentarily gets stunned. That's because nexting failed.
The other, is of course to plan a future. This is attributed to the fact that we humans have got a frontal lobe.
Yes, people without it will survive (not all physical brain damage kills), but they loses the ability to think about their future; just like our small children who replies 'policemen' when we ask them what they wanna do in the future. Only difference between the two is that the former sees a blank image while the latter sees what he wants now instead of what the question is about, when the are thrown to imagine their future.
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And yes, you may have guessed; other animals do not have a frontal lobe.
So, according to the author, 'to think of the future' is the best phrase that best fit into the cliche: 'The only difference between homo sapiens and other animal is ...'
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Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert
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P.S.:
This is only the first 2 chapter of the book; interesting isn't it?
Grab one in the library!
(Crap; no one sees my blog... Ha, never mind, someday, someone will chance upon)
