What exactly is happiness? Who is seeking it? And why?

People search for happiness in all kinds of things. Some buy cars, some become serial killers, some indulge in self mutilation...

Imagine a computer. It processes bits and displays a beautiful image on the screen in an empty room. Everything works, but there is no observer.

Imagine the same computer and the same room. This time you are present to look at the image. You as an observer can make sense of the picture.

The body is also like the computer. It can gather data from environment using its senses. It can process such data and present it. Who makes sense of the data?

A car is desirable to you and makes you happy. When the brain shows you the image of a car, you become happy. This desire is taught by societal programming. This programming can be switched off too. A tribal hunter will assign no value to your car, for example.

Happiness, the feeling, is univeral. The object with which you assign that feeling is subjective. One can train the brain to not derive pleasure from senses. Take it to the extreme and there arrives a point where you no longer identify with your body. That is how there are many documented cases of spies enduring inhuman torture for extended periods and still not spilling the beans.