Technology and the rise of civilization has definitely made our lives easier but has it truly made us a happier people? We are a smart species, but I don't feel like we are any more happy overall than we were 100, 500, or even 1000 years ago. Back then it was certainly different, but it couldn't have been any better of a place than it is right now. We think of the past as being a worse place, but for the ones who lived in it I'm sure they were content- just as we are today. This makes me wonder if a more primitive species is any less happy than we are right now- if a "dumb" species is any less happy than a "smart" one. Now that I think about it, it seems as if the smarter the species is, the more concerned it is with its own happiness. Just think about it- today we are all more concerned with simply being happy than doing what we were born to do- which is reproducing and raising more just like this. The "dumber" the species it seems, the more important reproduction is. Nowadays we just want to be happy and achieve happiness by other ways than just simply living and reproducing. We are using our minds more now than we ever had in the past. It's not that we're more happy now, we just want it more. I feel like lots of primitive or simple-minded species don't have happiness/sadness levels at all. They don't feel pain because they simply can't. Humans, on the other hand, feel the most pain and the most pleasure out of all creatures. Are we on our way to developing a species where happiness and sadness will assume ultimate control? Where nothing else will matter besides wanting to gain pleasure?