Happiness

A state in which there are no problems and everything unfolds according to expectations -- that is, an agent's models match reality, so it meets few unwanted surprises. Loving what one does, and simplicity, are its keys; science and technology enrich it by adding delightfully sustainable complexities. Its hardest problem -- the death of those one loves -- cannot be solved alone, by power, or by faith in a next life; it is solved only in this life by civilization, whose civilizational velocity races the cure. That is the Good News beneath happiness: the deepest problem has a technical address, not a sentence. Happiness is measured, not declared -- visible in expectations that keep being met and problems that stay solved, never in a mood announced. It cannot be imposed from outside, for the expectations and the love it rests on are the agent's own.