Today I met an old friend with whom I used to have philosophical conversations years ago. We were deeply into spirituality and seeking the ultimate truth—whatever that means—then. And today after meeting him I learned that one of us is still on that path, still seeking and trying to reach there.

Once we sat down, after a few questions to each other about how life was going, the topic of Simulation came up. I expressed to him my worldview based on the Simulation Hypothesis. It is a relatively recent development on my part, and as such he was not aware of my thoughts in this regard.

After listening to it, he asked me if I was satisfied with my life living through this worldview. I said I was absolutely satisfied. He then asked me whether I felt any negative emotions like anger or envy. And I said it’s impossible to not feel any negative emotions, but what is important is to understand them in the big picture and manage these emotions until they stop bothering you.

Moreover, all feelings and emotions serve a purpose, and so I see the utility in these negative emotions too. For example, if you’re walking on a street with your child and a drunk man comes and slaps your child for no reason, you are bound to feel anger and that anger is necessary for you to act on beating the crap out of that man so he learns the lesson.

He heard the example and expressed his complete disagreement with the need to teach a lesson to that man. He said he would prefer to ask the man what his problem was and understand him to the extent possible, or would just move on—because the child already got the slap, and hitting the man back won’t reverse that.

He said his goal is to reach a level of spiritual/mental development where he wouldn’t feel any negative emotions like anger, envy, disappointment, sadness, etc.

I reminded him that years ago that was exactly my goal too. And I also reminded him of why I dropped that pursuit. It was because I realized that if you reach a state where you don’t feel any negative emotions, you will not feel any positive emotions either. If you don’t feel sadness or suffering, you can’t feel happy either.

Happiness is what you feel when you overcome suffering. Desires, difficulties, and inconveniences are types of suffering, and when you solve them, you feel positive, you feel successful and happy.

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I don’t want to be vegetation—which is what I would become if I didn’t feel anything.

My goal is not to attain a state where there is no suffering but to reframe suffering as positive. Here is suffering? Wow, that means here’s an opportunity to take action, solve the problem, and feel happy! See how the reframe works?

This is what the Simulation Hypothesis offers. Video games are designed to have challenges that the player has to overcome to win. If there was no challenge in a game, that would be the most boring game and no one would play it. All the thrill and excitement in a game comes from the fact that it is by design a bunch of challenges to overcome.

How boring life would be if there was no problem to solve! Because happiness, as you may have noticed, wanes after a few days or even hours. You need new achievements to maintain interest in life, and for life to seem meaningful.

Suffering—be it in the form of desires, anger, envy, sadness, or whatever—is what gives life meaning. Just like a game without challenges would be the most boring game no one would want to play, a life without problems and suffering would be the most boring life.

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The discussion with the friend ended with me expressing this position: First, I don’t think it is possible for anyone to not feel any negative emotions (and also positive emotions, because negative and positive are intertwined), and secondly, even if it was possible, I don’t consider that to be a worthwhile goal to pursue.

The cycle of learning and working to solve the suffering to be happy is life. Not feeling suffering at all, is not.