There is a need to say a few words about happiness.
Biologically speaking happiness is just a certain state of the brain, compared to other, less happy states. As a matter of fact, a number of hormones sometimes called "happy hormones" or "hormones of happiness" are known to science today. They include such hormones as Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphins. So it is not difficult to imagine a situation when you could chemically tweak the levels of these hormones in your brain and reach the true state of happiness without going into troubles of making any real changes to your life.
When/If this treatment becomes clever enough, you could eventually feel happy even while going through some rough times. Who knows, perhaps we will need this kind of therapy in the near future.
The true problem is that many people associate happiness with stuff in a way that having stuff that they want will make them happier. So, most of us are working hard on getting stuff or achieving the means for getting more of it.
The 1980 movie "The gods must be crazy" depicts the live of the family of hunter-gatherers living in the heart of Kalahari Desert that had virtually no stuff in their possession but were totally happy nevertheless, at least until they stumbled upon an empty bottle of Coca-Cola, carelessly thrown out of a window by a pilot of an above-flying jet.
Sudden appearing of stuff in their live made them confused and eventually broke their happiness. So they came to conclusion that the only way to become happy again is to destroy the stuff and stop being dependent on it.
These Kalahari folks that didn't have anything were probably much happier than most of the wealthy people in the world. Since the down of humanity people of all nations and religions where inventing various ways to get happier but something was always missing. At certain stage most of the happiness-seekers would come to a revelation that stuff is not giving them what they want. After trying everything they realize that stuff is not working anymore. So they turn into sex, mystic cults, religion, abusive power etc. But with time it inevitably turns out that these things actually are also just stuff. Wisemen use to say that we need to look for happiness inside ourselves. Many tried. Some got happier. Still, nobody knows for sure what exactly we need to look for. Animals are happy because they live. Just like that: alive means happy, dead - less happy but its ok, it's part of the game called evolution. This would definitely not work for people (except for that Kalahari family).
Some time ago a new kid came on the block. Nobody is sure what to make out of him. Even now we are still grappling with the real magnitude of changes that he is going to bring about not being quite certain of what exactly those changes might be and how much will they disrupt our lives. Each of those guys who work tirelessly on ever-upgrading and improving AI would say that they do it for humanity, for making our lives better and people happier. Most of them truly believes in what they say. But as stated above, you really do not need much to be happy. Just look again at those Kalahari folks who managed to live happiest of lives without anything at all.
The key question that we are putting forth on this website in its simplest form would sound something like this:
Is AI necessary?
Just three words, very simple. Do you have an answer? We don't but stay with us and together we will try to find it.