2012-04-03
Explanation
This comic explores the concept of utilitarian ethics taken to its logical -- and absurd -- extreme. A society creates a computer to replace government, programmed to maximize total happiness. At first, it seems to work reasonably well: when asked whether cheating on one'''s wife is ethical, the computer says yes, because both parties will find greater love, thus maximizing total happiness. A graph shows average happiness steadily increasing over time.
The trouble begins when a man named Felix emerges as the happiest person in the world. Because Felix is so easily delighted by everything (finding a penny sends him into ecstasy), the utilitarian computer begins making decisions that funnel all resources toward Felix, since his capacity for happiness means each additional benefit to him produces outsized gains in total happiness. The computer tells people to give Felix their life savings, manufacture lucky pennies for him to find, and eventually enslaves everyone to build pyramids for Felix. A chart shows Felix'''s happiness skyrocketing while everyone else'''s plummets.
The comic is a pointed critique of naive utilitarianism -- specifically, the "utility monster" thought experiment proposed by philosopher Robert Nozick. Nozick argued that if we simply maximize total utility, a being who derives enormous pleasure from consuming resources could justify taking everything from everyone else. Weiner illustrates this perfectly: a system designed to maximize aggregate happiness can produce deeply unjust outcomes when one individual'''s happiness function dominates.
The votey panel shows a woman asking the narrator "This is a fantasy of yours, isn'''t it?" -- implying the narrator (presumably Weiner himself) would love to be Felix, the person for whom the entire world is optimized.