What are the keys to leading the good life? My best guess is Krispy Kremes and streaming Netflix. But if you ask eudaemonist philosophers, they will tell you that the good life is reaping satisfaction and fulfillment from a deep engagement in the world. Hmmm...not exactly a road map to Happiness.

Eudaemonists claim that personal happiness is actually an ethical responsibility. By feeling good and at one with ourselves, by being in the groove and the zone, by gellin', we produce objective good for society.  When we feel bad, we waste our own lives and drag others down with us. Thus, a state of eudaemonia is not just desirable, but our moral duty to achieve. There is a catch. This means that anyone who is lonely, bored, indecisive, or chicken is committing a morally repugnant act.  Sounds like most of us better get going on saving our moral souls.

Fortunately, the second paper in the Faith in the Algorithm series presents a path toward salvation. In this paper, we claim that computational mechanisms have the potential to find our paths for us. Computers may be able to better represent an individual and the options available to them than even the most zen among us. Using these hi-fidelity representations, algorithms (whose forefathers already recommend us the books to buy on Amazon.com, the movies to rent on Netflix, and the people to date on Match.com) could make sure that every choice we make is the right one.

If we place faith in this savior, decisions can even be made for us. If algorithms are able to determine coming discontent, they can intervene before we are ever made to feel that discontent. We may have our apartment packed, our 401(k) rolled over, and a nameplate on a new office in a new town before we are even aware that our jobs are no longer fulfilling. Multivac anyone?...