Anyway, I feel the need to further discuss synthetic happiness. I did not find anything specifically referring to our brains being able to adapt and see things differently, naturally. I could not find any process which had these effects. I already know how happiness is made, but how it can be made in the context of a less preferable situation is still a mystery.
And if you wiki "artificial happiness", you get nothing to do with dopamine production. You get stuff like "artificial turf" and something that seems to have a lot of logic potholes in it.
I suppose Siegmund Freud has got something to say about it.
Anyway, today a thought occurred to me. According to that dude, people naturally and inevitably come to accept that the situation they are in is good, even if it is not. If this is true, then where does the "The grass is greener on the other side" syndrome come from?
Synthetic happiness and the Greener Grass Syndrome(I made up a new term! I think...) seem to conflict in fundamentals. SH states that people will eventually be happy with what they have. GSS suggests that we will never be happy, and will always see something else(and usually unattainable) is better.
There isn't much more to mention here. I'm sure all of you can understand what I'm getting at. I just thought it was interesting to think about. Hm.
Yeah, fire away, Li Ming...
Anyway, I went bowling today! Again. But today was rather jinxed. Someone's alarm clocks didn't ring, someone fell sick, someone lost his wallet at the arcade... And I spent the entire day in a funny sedated mode.
I was losing miserably on our first few games... Well, not so bad the second and third one, but I was doing horribly on my first. The balls were scratched and the finger-holes were tiny even for my fingers. It didn't help either that the alley was packed with people. Also, the lanes weren't oiled, and seemed a little smaller than those at other alleys.
But I guess I got used to it after a while. And I invented new bowling moves. Which involve almost falling on your butt the moment you release the ball. But hey, it worked. Four strikes in one game, beating our personal record...
Oh, I am now obligated to read stuff on wikipedia. It's like... A social law. When one has searched something on wikipedia, and has found two or more consecutive links which interest him, he must continue reading until he has exhausted all appealing topics.
I love xkcd.
-Joe