I'm with him on this thought experiment all the way up to the last paragraph: "I can't think of any imaginary situation in which long term happiness could come from other people. The best you can hope for is that other people won't thwart your efforts to make yourself happy."<p>On the contrary. Almost completely, happiness <i>is</i> other people.
He is actually talking about warm fuzzy(any sort of affirmation not sex in particular)<p>The original allegory was written by Claude Steiner.<p>Here is the original <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v683T1GVS1U" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v683T1GVS1U</a><p>if that is annoying
read the story here
<a href="http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm</a>
Interesting.<p>I would imagine the right to pressing button or having your button pressed will be institutionalized,e.g. through a Church or Government. Doing that freely and often - before some sort of permission, license or ceremony - would be stigmatized and possibly outlawed.
If you want to take the story semi-seriously, it really depends on the definition of "happiness". If it was like an electrical stimulation to certain parts of the brain (colloquially called the "pleasure center" even if that's not accurate), the natural outcome would be pretty much the entire species pairing up and holding each other's buttons until death by dehydration.<p>As others observe, if this is a metaphor for sex, it is a terrible one. A metaphor useful to the extent it has similarities with the target of the metaphor and this deviates in numerous critical ways that render any resulting "insights" completely irrelevant to the question of sex. Numerous, numerous, numerous.
I also imagine that there would be a huge market for selling fashionable accessories that conceal the happiness button.<p>Some (most) governments/religions/cultures would create and enforce laws to force you to conceal it.
Now imagine that, instead, people <i>couldn't</i> avoid pushing your button—in fact, that the very act of being around other people pushed both your button and theirs. That would be a world where indeed "long term happiness could come from other people."
I suppose one would not derive deep, meaningful happiness from the button, because the happiness would have a hollow source. Sort of like the difference between the elation of scoring a goal, or the joy of reading a good book, or the merriment had when spending time with long-time friends, versus the high of taking drugs. Enriching fulfilment versus empty thrill.
I'd just lie with my head on my desk and be satisified with life. But I'm not sure if I'd actually BE happy. I may feel it but it would be rather shallow.
Slightly unrelated: A site that has a "share" button really ought to try and see what their page looks like when posted to Facebook. All I get on FB is the URL, no text exerpt and no icon.