If there were a completely safe, non-toxic, not physically addictive way to put people into a good mood, would that be a good thing? I’m thinking just of some sort of ostensibly benign pill that helps people to chill, to accept each other, to relax and enjoy the moment.
On the surface, it seems like a good thing. But maybe such a thing runs counter to what people really need.
Perhaps our human tendency toward irrational moods and behaviors has actual survival value, despite its seemingly disruptive effect. Maybe, on some fundamental level, we need to argue.
If that is the case, then a perfect “good mood pill” might actually be destructive in ways we cannot yet measure. It might end up taking away something essential that is needed to give our lives meaning.
It sounds like you are talking about the “soma” in Brave New World by Huxley. In this world, not only losing friends or family but also any injustice, any bias, any social problems, there is no problem at all, take the soma. Send people to war for someone’s money, is there trauma? No problem, take the soma. You don’t need to solve any problems, but soma solves all. Any person stops complaining about anything. A tyrant’s best friend, soma. I think this might be disruptive for humanity. Hitoshi
That was Huxley’s theory about what would happen. But what if he was wrong?
It’s fun to speculate. After all, Brave New World was speculative fiction. 🙂