Happiness

I finally have a working philosophy, or at least something close. It's also very simple, though the execution is deliciously complex and intricate.

1) Everyone should be free to do whatever they want to do.
2) Everyone should be truly happy.

Not the type of freedom which is derived from taking away others freedoms, of course, unless it makes those people happy to sacrifice their freedom. By truly happy, I mean actually happiness, not a type enforced by secret police and drugs in the water supply (but how easy that would be to put into place!). Nor do I mean a world in which happiness is redefined to be the normal state of mind - I do not intend to do this solely through linquistic hacks, though linquistic hacks would clearly play some role in the eventual creation of this world.

Beyond this, philosophy begins to apply. The issue is too complex to really think about as a whole - every example case brings with it its own set of exceptions and contradictions with the first law.

As a dystopia, I somewhat recommend The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect - it is an extremely good example of how something like this could go horribly wrong. There are also some short story examples of how it could (I believe that 365tomorrows has a few, though I don't remember their names). It is far easier to take these good intentions and go along a negative path, after all - and the road to hell is paved with good intentions (actually, frozen door-to-door salesmen and telemarketers, but good intentions is more poetic).

As to why my philosophy has moved in this direction, it should be fairly obvious.

Also, I must point out that I highly doubt my ability to accomplish this goal; if I am able to lay out even a basic structure for it, something capable of dealing with even a fraction of the potential cases which would be thrown at it, I will consider this to not be a failure, and that will make me happy - which is the point of this! If I'm happy with something which won't ever change the world, then there is no reason why everyone else shouldn't be happy with their lives, once someone eliminates the obvious issues with starvation, poverty, abuse, and homelessness.

Doublethink, of course; I only care about my happiness ; I care about the happiness of the world. Strange how altruism arises from self-interest, and stranger still that I am aware of this contradiction yet still support both sides of it. The mind I live in is quite fun to live in.

Corporation is coming along well, and I'm not especially stressed; life is interesting, and somewhat amusing. It makes me laugh, really. I'm still immortal, I think - and I define immortal as not accepting or understanding of mortality, so I probably have the worse end of the deal than most mortals.

Somewhat incomplete, but will not be fixed.