Every action we do is in the pursuit of happiness

Response to response A: How is this fake cognizance? Your cognizance is the sum of your experiences, what different does it make if they are caused by sub-atomic particles or electrons racing through a computer chip? Response to response B: Again your fake cognizance thing doesn't make sense. Why could we not be happy in the machine? Are we not happy when we have pleasant dreams? Response to counterpoint: Your missing the point is that the machine will guarantee you infinite happiness, and if that is our final goal, then we would get in the machine. A team of neuroscientist would monitor all your brain chemistry and regulate your perception of your virtual environment to maximize your happiness. Therefore, to say I value this over getting in the machine because this will make me more happy is not valid since the machine will give you greater happiness no matter what. It could even be manipulated that your first experience in the machine would be you deciding not to get in the machine, and you would go on to live the happiest life possible, and be none the wiser to you choosing to get in the machine. As far as people always doing what will make them happy, what about attending funerals? We have other emotional needs. Recovering drug addicts who lapse back into drug use? They know drugs won't make them happy, but they do so because they are addicted. They no longer fell "happy" when they do drugs, but do them anyway. To say these things are done because they make us happier than the alternatives is to equate pursuit of happiness with "what we do." And so your argument becomes "Every action we do is what we do," which is tautological and uninteresting. There is a long way to go from "we make some choices in the pursuit of happiness," to "every action we do is in the pursuit of happiness." Reproduction and consumption do not have to be means to happiness, just that our reward system of happiness evolved with those as the goal. So it's the other way around. You debate someone to become wiser, you are wiser to gain a more revered status, you gain status so that you are a more selectable mate. And since we have rapidly changed our environment over the last few thousand years, our genetics haven't caught up yet. Finding these mismatches is very useful in understanding the world. I think this evolutionary psychology view is more able to explain things then to just say everything we do is in the pursuit of happiness. Take obesity for an example. Are we obese because it makes us happy? No. Obviously people don't want to be obese. But we eat anyway. Do we feel happy about over eating? We can. But sometimes people feel indifferent or guilty about over eating. I just ate some ramen noodles. They didn't make me happy, but it needed to be done. Some might say that the media manipulates our version of happiness by advertising fast food, which leads us to eat more and become fat. But we see more advertising for gyms, diet shakes, and what not, why would we not be getting skinnier? Because humans, like all living things, evolved in an environment where food was scarce and sweetness was a sign of ripeness. You are hardwired to eat more than you need, because back then you didn't know when the next meal would come. Fast forward hundreds of thousands of years: now food is not scarce and usually the sweetest tasting things are the ones that are the worst for you. Our genes aren't any different, but our environment has changed. So we don't over eat because it makes us happy, but because at one point in our ancestry it was vital to survival and reproductive success. Our happiness is just a way for the brain to reward us to do certain acts, but now that our environment has changed from the one that reward system evolved in, happiness and what we need don't always line up.