Suffering Undercuts Hedonic Ethics

The essay argues suffering is an adaptive control signal (not pure disutility) and happiness is a prediction‑error blip, so maximizing or minimizing these states targets the wrong variables. If hedonic states are instrumental, utilitarian calculus mistakes signals for goals. That reframes moral reasoning away from summing pleasure/pain and toward values and constraints rooted in how humans actually function. — This challenges utilitarian foundations that influence Effective Altruism, bioethics, and AI alignment, pushing policy debates beyond hedonic totals toward institutional and value‑based norms.