Algorithmic Pleasures & Human Happiness

Abstract

This article explores the profound ontological tension between the exponential growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the persistent decline in global mental well-being. Drawing upon the Vatican Note, Antiqua et Nova (2025), it argues that while AI serves as a Titan of Functionality capable of accomplishing unprecedented material abundance, it remains fundamentally incapable of satisfying the deeper human longing for genuine peace and joy. The study utilises Erich Fromm’s existential framework to categorise algorithmic pleasures within the Having mode of existence—a state characterised by consumption and quantitative metrics that fails to enrich the human soul. By contrast, authentic happiness is presented as a Being mode activity, rooted in the Aristotelian concept of Eudaimonia and the hylomorphic unity of the human person. The article further dwells upon the irreducible differences between the purely calculative mechanisms of AI (Ratio) and the contemplative, embodied, and relational nature of integral human intelligence (Intellectus). It concludes that authentic human happiness cannot be engineered through algorithms but must flow from a profound appreciation and comprehensive exercise of the Imago Dei within integral human intelligence.