The Problem with Perfectly Rational Humans

I keep wondering what would happen if people actually became perfectly rational.

No impulse buys. No revenge bedtime procrastination. No texting your ex because a song came on. Just clean optimization, all day, every day.

At first glance that sounds great. Rational people would probably save more money, argue less, and stop pretending every hot take is a personality trait. Society might run smoother. Meetings might even end on time, which is obviously science fiction.

But there is a problem: a lot of what makes life worth living is irrational.

Falling in love is not efficient. Making art is rarely practical. Forgiving someone who does not deserve it is usually a terrible strategy if your only metric is game theory. Parenting is a massive commitment with chaotic returns. Starting a company is irrational in the same way climbing a mountain in the rain is irrational, and people do it anyway because something in them says yes.

Even humour depends on tiny acts of irrationality. A joke is a deliberate violation of logic, then a fast repair. If everyone was perfectly rational, a joke might feel like corrupted data.

I suspect we confuse rationality with wisdom. Rationality is a tool. Wisdom is knowing when the tool is not the point.

So maybe the goal is not to become perfectly rational. Maybe the goal is to become rational enough to avoid obvious self-destruction, then irrational enough to love people, make strange things, and dance badly at weddings.

If that is a bug, I am voting to keep it.