Scott explains the Buddhist claim that 'life is suffering' through a temperature analogy: just as cold is merely the absence of heat, joy is merely less suffering, with nirvana being 'absolute zero suffering' rather than a neutral state. Longer summary

Scott explores the Buddhist claim that 'life is suffering' by explaining it through an analogy with temperature: just as scientifically there is only heat (with cold being merely the absence of heat), Buddhists claim there is only suffering (with joy being merely less suffering than baseline). The post addresses the common objection that Buddhism seems to reject life's good experiences, explaining that nirvana isn't a gray neutral state but rather 'absolute zero suffering' - more blissful than ordinary happiness, just as absolute zero is colder than room temperature. Scott connects this to previous discussions about jhanas, meditation, and the symmetry theory of valence, where irregularity in brain activity corresponds to suffering. Shorter summary

Scott examines two types of happiness - one affected by predictability and one that persists - through various examples and neuroscientific concepts. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores the concept of happiness and reward in relation to neuroscience and prediction error. He discusses how there seem to be two types of happiness: one that is cancelled out by predictability (like the hedonic treadmill) and another that persists even when expected. The post delves into various examples including grief, romantic relationships, and drug tolerance to illustrate this pattern. Scott also touches on AI concepts and how they might relate to human reward systems. He concludes by suggesting that while unpredicted rewards can't be consistently obtained, predicted rewards can still be enjoyable. Shorter summary