<p>Look at Facebook or look at Whatsapp and everyone's peddling happiness. These get maximum likes as well (including mine). But, whose happiness?<br><br>Isn't happiness an intensely personal, contextual emotion? A functional of each individual's temperamental construct, phase in life and context? Maybe why a formula for unbroken, personal happiness has remained elusive.<br><br>Imagine Dad, Mum, 16ish daughter and 14ish son on holiday. Dad wants to hit a beer when mum wants to hit the spa when son wants to hit the arcade when daughter wants to hit the mall. So is a one-size fits all model for happiness a possibility?<br><br>The incomplete happiness elephant. Religion tells us to shun and be happy. Epicurus tells us not to shun and be happy. Socialism tells us to share and be happy. Capitalism tells us not to share and be happy. Maslow tells us to self-actualise and be happy. And the Buddha tells us that it is the suffering of change. Well, so what is this animal in the drawing room?<br><br>I believe all of the above have contributed to happiness in their own ways. But unbroken, personalized happiness? That accommodates your temperament, phase and context? Nope.<br><br>Technology can near-complete the elephant! Happiness technology is built for a culture premised on an algorithmic model of self. For this we have to understand individuals as a bundle of inputs (data collection), algorithmic processes (data analysis), and outputs (data use). So we can actually convert input resources into outputs of emotion.<br><br>Statisticians (and now every marketer) can predict and influence our behaviour and preferences based on the content we create and on social media's likes, dislikes and opinions. Which can easily be converted into customised recommendations for individual delight.<br><br>A confluence of technologies for personalised happiness. Today we do have the technologies to gauge, understand and deliver personalised happiness. I already have all information about the individual, I have the technology to bucket preferences and contexts. Now if I marry pop psychology and a little philosophy to your need context, I have a formula for personalised happiness. For you.<br><br>The delivery mechanism, we already have. All of us already know that social networks can impact moods. And every time I deliver your happiness pill via social media, you will reveal how you could be made happier. And I keep getting better at keeping you continually happy.<br><br>"I am kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." - J D Salinger. It was not said in this context, but I love Salinger's quote, very apposite to this context. Will we be engineering happiness alone? Or will it lead to further power in the hands of a few, now with the ability to keep us happy as well? These questions I have no answers to. I take recourse in Ockham's les parsimoniae - the fewer the assumptions, the better.<br><br>Data can create continual happiness - with curated, personalised recommendations to connect with an individual's contexts of mood and time. And this to me seems 'the' idea, as the fluctuating nature of the epistemology of happiness makes any one formula redundant.<br><br>Happiness has always been an industry, whatever -ism you call it by. But then again, with their formulae for your happiness.<br><br>My happiness formulae varies itself to suit the pill-popper's subjective, contextual need. This is the ultimate happiness pill (blue or pink or whatever), personalised to individual, mood and time. What man has sought all along - now brought to you by data science.<br><br><em>The author, Atul Jalan, is managing director and founder of Manthan</em></p>
