Absence of a Thing

In my ninth grade science class, the teacher told us that heat was essentially energy. I raised my hand and asked, “If heat is energy, what is cold?” The teacher said, “Cold is the lack of energy.”

I always remember that because, like coldness, the lack of something often feels like its own something. In art, for example, the use of empty space can be just as important as the stuff you see.

Recently I was wondering if life as a rock would be superior to life as a conscious entity. My first reaction was no, because a rock has no capacity to enjoy itself. This made me wonder if happiness is nothing more than the absence of pain, which a rock has.

In the end, I decided I’d rather be me than a rock, because the rock isn’t conscious of its lack of pain. So forget about the rock, but I think there might be some merit to the idea that happiness is nothing more than the absence of pain.

Perhaps you think that sitting around pain free would not be enough to make you happy. It would be boring and unfulfilling. And it’s hard to be happy when you are bored and unfulfilled. But boredom and lack of fulfillment are types of pain. Imagine sitting around doing nothing while having no tinge of boredom, or lack of purpose, or loneliness, or any other discomfort. I think it would feel like happiness.

The ideal happy creature would be a rock with consciousness. It would have no discomfort and no goals beyond eroding.

This explains why I don’t fear living to the age of 140. The common, and I believe incorrect view, is that it’s impossible to be happy when you are that old. Your body would be a mess, and you’d have no capacity to go out and do the things that make people happy. But I’m counting on a big demographic bubble of old people to have lots of political clout. The first thing we oldsters will do is get rid of drug laws for people over 100. We’ll argue that all the reasons for drug laws don’t apply at that age. We won’t be driving cars or damaging our careers. We’ll just be sitting in rocking chairs and staring out the windows. All we will want is to be pain-free, like rocks.

We’ll probably have a name for that condition, such as getting “stoned.”

Comments

[Lord Foul]

Scott,

don´t aim low! With the ongoing development of new technologies, like nanotech or implants, you could easily hope for more than thousand years instead of just mere 140.

Of course, if hightech-implants in your body or nanotech-enhancements are invented, simple drugs won´t be needed anymore, you can directly phase out into a happier state of mind. You only have to command your implants to erase all painful things from your mind.

[Roby Bang]

I've always thought about that. Except that my theory was that all humans are essentially animals who want to avoid pain and seek pleasure. People only bring pain to themselves if they think it'll bring them more pleasure. Or if they don't realise the reason they're in pain. It's a good idea with a lot of potential, but it's so simple that it doesn't really have a lot of potential for being a famous philosophy. Why is it that the deepest thoughts are so simple?

~~Roby Bang

[jos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

[Lolita]

"Imagine sitting around doing nothing while having no tinge of boredom, or lack of purpose, or loneliness, or any other discomfort. I think it would feel like happiness."

There is a description for this state. It's "BEING HIGH".
:)

[Indrionas]

Genius!

[Broacher]

William Steig (the originator of 'Shrek') wrote a kids book along this line, 'Sylvester and the Magic Pebble', about a donkey who accidentally turns himself into a big rock (and discovers the limitations of such a state).

And of course, Annie Dillard's 'Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters'.

Both are very good books!

[CDriK]

"a rock has no capacity to enjoy itself"
You should consider more possibilities.

Even huge clouds of gaz could live and think, quite slowly admittedly.

A single meteor might just be a signal of happiness of huge rock brains.

[secret33.com, (On absence of a Thing)]

I enjoyed reading this entry about "Absence of a Thing".
No, "happiness" is not just an absence of pain. One can be without pain and still be unhappy!

It is like saying wealth is the absence of poverty.

Well, one can be rich and still be poor, if wealth is equated with having a lot of money.

One can be rich because he has a lot of money and therefore wealth, but poor because he has bad health, bad marriage and bad personality

Also, a rock is not just a lump of matter. A rock is part of the living planet earth.

It looks like a rock and lifeless because you are perceiving it through human senses.

If can perceive a rock with the senses of the living planet earth, you would see a flesh, not a rock! So a rock is rock and lifeless only when perceived through human senses.

[Regret]

The best thing about being 140 is all the 100 year old hotties you'll have to chose from.

[AusLisa]

Happiness defined as the absence of pain requires previous pain to compare to. Works for human male at 140yrs, not rock.

[krkr8m]

Anyone who is or can remember being actually happy can see that this argument is nonsense.

[Andy Watt]

Nah, that wasn't an 8 paragraph pun. Just a useful conincidence based on a metaphysical conundrum about wether a rock has a better existence because it doesn't feel pain.

Scott, are you OK mate - generally I descend into debates about wether I'd be better off ignorant and happy (cleaning toilets and not knowing any more, say) or an engineer (sic) when I'm really hacked off.

I do appreciate you came to the decision that it's better to know - the very fact that your critical faculties are up to scratch and can cogitate over the possibilities shows enlightenment doesn't come from not knowing anything.

Good for you Mr A.

[dhaval]

amen!!

[Joe]

In a field
I am the absence of field.
This is always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the places
where my body's been.

We all have reasons for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

-- Mark Strand, 1963

[Alejandro]

In theory, I sort of agree with you, but consider this:

Who's happier:

1. A person who's never had a tumor?
2. A person who's had a tumor which was healed?

In any case, I believe happiness does require at least the acknowledgement of potential pain so you can know that you have avoided it, so being conscious would definitely be a prerequisite.

[James]

There is no spice the equal of hunger. It goes for other pains to. Displesure sharpens plesure.
It is our pain that really lets us know how good the rest of life is. And the greatest pleasures often border on pain.
Or maybe I just like pain a little too much.

[VermontGal]

"I am a rock, I am an island....
Because a rock feels no pain/ And an island never cries."

[Charley]

_____________________________________________

... and Zen they voted ...

[Edmund]

A problem occurs with this theory. One can have happiness even when one also has pain.

[Jason Dumler]

That's a good theory, but the absence of all pain isn't happiness. The cessation of pain is happiness. If you never experienced any pain, you'd never have a reason to be happy.

Think in terms of primitive survival. Things that kill you, make you weak or make you sick = pain/bad. Things that don't kill you, feed you or fix sickness = happiness/good. They are two ends of the same spectrum. An addendum is removing something makes you happy = pain/bad, removing something that hurts you = happiness/good...so the absence of that stimuli is a thing in itself.

-----

I wonder how much money our government spends on keeping drugs out of reach of the 80+ crowd...or just the retired crowd in general? People would bring up quality of life issues for the elderly, but for the majority, I think the quality of life pretty much sucks lemons. If drugs improved their happiness levels, then I'd say go for it.

[Homo Engineerus]

Could you replace Rock with Bush (George W). Sitting around completely stupid can also fulful your ideals of happiness, the absence of pain or in this case thought can bring on a state of happiness, if you have no imagination you can not be bored.
Other great stupids Forest Gump, and from Douglas Adams books the ruler of the universe found endless happiness with a cat, pencil and paper. OK these are fictional.

[BillF]

Pain

Why must I be hurt?
Suffering and despair,
Cowardice and cruelty,
Envy and injustice,
All of these hurt.
Grief and terror,
Loneliness and betrayal
And the agony of loss or death-

All these things hurt.
Why? Why must life hurt?
Why must those who love generously,
Live honorably, feel deeply
All that is good-and beautiful
Be so hurt,
While selfish creatures
Go unscathed?
That is why-
Because they can feel.
Hurt is the price to pay for feeling.
Pain is not an accident,
Nor punishment, nor mockery
By some savage God.
Pain is part of growth.
The more we grow
The more we feel-
The more we feel-the more we suffer,
For if we are able to feel beauty,
We must also feel the lack of it-
Those who glimpse heaven
Are bound to sight hell.
To have felt deeply is worth
Anything it cost.
To have felt Love and Honor,
Courage and Ecstasy
Is worth–any price.
And so-since hurt is the price
Of Larger living, I will not
Hate pain, nor try to escape it.
Instead I will try to meet it
Bravely, bear it proudly:
Not as a cross, or a misfortune,
but an Opportunity,
a privilege,
a challenge - to the God that gropes within me.

-Elsie Robinson

[Raza Khan]

'stoned' HAHAHAHA.You're a FUCKING GENIUS!!!

[Adrian Phillips]

Warm vs cold would be "less excited" not a "lack" of energy. Was this the same teacher that taught you evolution?

[wernman]

Happiness is not situational. This is where the Christians have the difference. Happiness is not the absence of pain, although for non-Christians that's the best you can hope for. And try to get stuff toward that end. But it never quite works.

Happiness is relational. Christians have met a person so amazing, so beautiful, so big, so powerful, so close, so personal, so intimate, so loving -- the very definition of Love itself -- and you're never separated from this person. We've met THE person we were created to be with. That relationship gives a deep joy inside that's independent of the circumstances around you.

That's who Jesus is to us. I'd love to introduce you sometime.