Book Review – Sapiens (Is it justified to make people happy by manipulating biochemical systems?)

I read Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens, and it made me think that it is not justifiable to make people happy by manipulating their biochemical systems.

 

Scientific advances from the past have advanced to the point where it is possible to make people happy by manipulating their biochemical systems. In the book Sapiens, author Yuval Noah Harari explains that today’s biologists are focusing on biochemical systems such as serotonin to help people get out of depression and make them artificially happy. He quotes Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World and asks us. “If everyone is happy, what’s wrong with that?” There are many arguments for and against artificially controlling people’s happiness, but I don’t think it is justified to make people happy by manipulating biochemical systems in this way.
For the first reason, we can look to the novel Brave New World, which the author cites. In the novel Brave New World, happiness is controlled through the use of Soma, a neuroleptic drug. In this society, people don’t feel unhappy because they take Soma, and they don’t feel socially disoriented or lost. However, Bernard, who is more emotionally sensitive because of the extra emotion-related parts of his culture, and John, who was born in the outside world, are skeptical of this society. All but these two people, whose emotions are controlled by the culture at birth and who live on a neuroleptic called Soma, do not know their own value and live lives that are not human, that is, lives whose paths are determined or already determined by things outside of themselves. John’s skepticism about this eventually leads him to commit suicide, while Bernard leaves for another place. This dystopian ending, and the society in which people’s dignity is not preserved and their value is devalued in the middle of the novel, indicates that a society that determines happiness through a biochemical system is not right and will threaten human rights if such a system is established.
The second reason is that there is a difference between happiness that is earned through one’s own efforts and happiness that is earned through biochemical manipulation. Happiness that is earned by persevering through hardship and adversity is naturally more valuable than happiness that is earned by doing nothing and being drugged. In fact, we are more attached to and feel happier about opportunities and successes that we have worked for and earned than those that we simply got lucky with. From this perspective, we can see that the happiness gained from biochemical manipulation is not high and will not last long. In other words, the happiness gained from drugs is of low value. Once the effects of the drug wear off, people will quickly feel unhappy again, which will lead them to continue to artificially manipulate their biochemistry. In that case, people will become addicted to the drug and live a life that is so crippling that they will not be able to live a normal life without the biochemical manipulation. Life would become increasingly lethargic, and society as a whole would become depressed and negative. For this reason, it is unjustifiable to seek happiness from external factors other than one’s own, and happiness that comes from within is the only true happiness.
The third reason is the violation of humanity. If biochemical manipulation makes people happy, and it becomes widespread, people will become more obedient, and they will lose their critical logic, and they will look at people who don’t do it as strange because they don’t want to lose it. They will see criticism or disagreement as strange and will soon try to shut them down. If people who don’t manipulate are forced to do so, their humanity will be violated, which means that life with biochemical manipulation will become the norm, and society will appear to be running smoothly and without problems, but in reality, it will be an inefficient and ineffective society, and these things will continue to fester and later explode, causing a major crisis at once. If you look at it from the perspective of humanity and human rights, the ability to control happiness through biochemical systems and the prevalence of this is going to be a big problem.
The author Yuval Noah Harari’s idea of controlling human happiness through biochemical systems makes me think about many things. Many scientists are currently studying happiness and trying to understand the mechanisms that regulate it. In fact, this research is paying off. Things like serotonin have been shown to regulate depression, happiness, and more. They’re now thinking about whether there’s a way to artificially modulate happiness. I think there’s a reason why narcotic drugs are not allowed to be used for anything other than therapeutic purposes. The search for happiness through biochemical manipulation is similar to taking these drugs. As shown in the novel Brave New World, societies that artificially control happiness have a dystopian character, and people in such societies end up living meaningless lives without finding their full selves. Furthermore, the happiness that comes from drugs and the happiness that comes from our own efforts are of different value, and therefore there is a huge difference in the duration and degree of happiness. Finally, such biochemical manipulation may eventually lead to dehumanization and the suppression of human rights. For the above reasons, I believe that it is unjustifiable to make people happy through biochemical manipulation and that it should never be realized. Biologists should also realize that artificially manipulating happiness is not the right thing to do for the future of society and humans, and should limit their research to this area.