The Hedonic Cycle, also known as the Hedonic Treadmill or Hedonic Adaptation describes the tendency for humans to return to a baseline emotional level, even after particularly happy or traumatic moments in ones life.
Essentially, despite all that goes in on our lives, we will return to some emotional baseline that is predetermined genetically. And, unfortunately, this genetic trait has quite a range for people, meaning many will be predispositioned for an overall unhappier life.
This is a very interesting concept to me, as it seems to be a very deterministic view of the world. It seems to suggest that no matter what we do, we will always return to some baseline level of happiness. This is a very depressing thought, as it suggests that we can never truly be happy, no matter what we do.
Posthumanism and the possibility of changing the Hedonic Setpoint
Something that has been advancing rapidly is the field of genetics and genetic modification through tools like CRISPR. It is possible that in the future, we could modify our own genetics to change our hedonic setpoint. This could be a very interesting development, as it could potentially allow us to be much happier than we are now.
As such, it has become a topic of interest for many posthumanists, who believe that we can use technology to transcend our biological limitations. This could be a very interesting development, but also a very dangerous one, as it could potentially lead to a world where only the rich can afford to be happy.
This is an important topic for debate, as it could potentially change the very nature of what it means to be human. It is something that we should be very careful about, as it could have far-reaching consequences for our society.