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C00002 00002	happin[w87,jmc]		Happiness and other evolved intermediates
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happin[w87,jmc]		Happiness and other evolved intermediates

Minsky supposed that a baby reaches for things in order to get food.
Quite wrong.  Nature is smarter than that.  A baby's instinct to reach for
things is quite independent of immediate reward.  The instinct serves the
purpose of getting food and other things, but because humans have evolved
a reaching instinct in babies, babies get much more practice in reaching
than if reaching depended on immediate reward.  The same is true of
a baby's instinct for naming things.

A more interesting question is that of the usefulness of happiness.
Why should nature have evolved the possibility of human happiness?
It seems that people are pleased when they achieve their goals and
are happy when they think themselves in the process of achieving
goals.  This mechanism provides intermediate rewards.