HAPPINESS THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

The basis of this thought experiment is to figure out the most amount of "happiness" and the least amount of "pain" which one can have in their life assuming that everything is in their favor. This question ignores ethics and the wellbeing of others.

The experiment starts at the birth of a new baby (let's call them Eden) who is going to be our test subject. Our goal is to maximaze happiness/pleasure (h) for the baby and minimize pain/suffering/sadness (s). This applies over their entire life and assumes that these concepts can be measured quantitatively. For the purpose of the experiment, no one needs to actually measure these values even though realistically that would be neccessary.

Every single other person on the planet (p) is then going to dedicate their entire existence to maximazing h and minimizing s for Eden even if it costs them severe suffering. All that matters is that Eden lives the most perfect life that is possible considering p is dedicating their life to make sure that happens.

At the end of the experiment, the success of the experiment (t) can be measured via the following equation:

h - s = t

Where the question gets interesting is what exactly should p do to maximize Eden's t.

What kind of food should be given to Eden? Should Eden even get food or just get it directly injected? Should Eden learn language? If so what language? How much does genetics impact the methodology? How much human interaction should Eden get? Should we give Eden recreational drugs and if so what kinds and how much and how often? How often should Eden participate in sexual activities? Should we sacrifice other humans to Eden? How much does Eden's current age impact what we do? Should we euthanize Eden if they're getting too old and they're just going to have mostly s for the rest of their life?

A lot of these questions are hard to answer as this experiment physically can't happen in the real world and additionally we don't exactly even know the t of any particular activity. However some things should be of note. For one, almost any activity has both h and s just to differing extents. For example, riding a bike for the first time has h because it is exciting but also has s because it can be scary. Additionally, the h and s of a particular activity may not occur at the same time. For example, snorting cocaine cause a lot of h shortly after but will then eventually transition into mostly s with little to no h. Health problems tend to cause s and they should be avoided if possible, although some coniditions (such as ADHD or autism) don't neccessary cause a notable amount of s

Another thing to consider is novelty. As novelty decreases, both h and s decrease, although h is much more susceptible to this decrease. Playing a particular video game for the first time might give off a lot of h but as one keeps playing it and playing it the h of the activity decreases. Another thing to consider is the mere exposure effect, which is a phenomenon where being exposed to something makes you more likely to enjoy it. This means that if we decide to expose them to music, the type of music won't matter as whatever we show them they'll want to listen to similar music later (although it may be advisable to avoid genres such as metal or EDM to avoid future ear damage because that would likely cause quite a bit of s.) Addiction is something that most likely should be avoided. If Eden gets addicted to anything, it'll most likely cause more s then the h it would give. As one gets addicted to something, novelty decreases a lot and h is very little compared to what it once was, but when one isn't doing the activity s increases due to withdrawal,boredom, etc.. However, it may be okay to give Eden very addictive things every once in awhile for a boost in h.

Genetics most likely plays a very huge role in what p should do for Eden, but one idea (albeit a slightly fucked up one) is to give electric shocks to Eden to certain parts of the brain that cause pleasure for some time (or alternatively, give them very euphoric drugs such as MDMA, methamphetamine, or heroin), then inject them with anesthetics to keep them unconscious for some time for them to recover and give them nutrients. This would have lowering h over time and may cause health problems (and by extension, s) later. An alternative more calm and ethical (although ethics are out of the window for this thought experiment) is to have them live a somewhat normal life but have it be less focused on educating them about the world and working and more focused on solely having a diverse variety of fun. A variety of fun activities is neccessary for the experiment to make sure novelty doesn't decrease but also there shouldn't be too much variety as it takes time for Eden to learn how to most effectively increase h via a particular activity.

Here is a list of notable activities that should be considered to have Eden participate in:

Games
Art
Writing
Reading
Talking
Drugs
Sex
Music
Food
Exploration
Rides

This is not an exhaustive list of recreational human activities but contains most of the most notable ones that should be considered. Eden probably shouldn't be forced into doing something if it will cause them more s than it is worth. There should also be a good group of humans that interact with Eden regulary as friends and (potentially) family. Unless Eden is aromantic, Eden would probably benefit significantly from a romantic partner but that person should genuinely love Eden to maximize the h benefit from a romantic relationship.

This is just a fun thought experiment and could not be replicated in real life. Part of the reason I came up with this is because I live a kind of life where happiness is in theory the most important part (hedonism), and I wondered how one could "optimize" their life to have this. Thank you for reading this.