The Joy Factor

The Joy Factor or Index:
"count your blessings"

How do experts predict disaster? The insurance industry uses a mathematical formula called the hazard function. This function yields, through frequency counts of disastrous events and the use of basic calculus and probability theory, the likelihood that a specified ‘hazard’ will happen in the very next instant.

This could be a fire, flood, fatality, etc. Events you can be insured for. If you are a member of a given age group, sex, region, occupational category, or other grouping that predict a higher ‘hazard function’ value, then your insurance rates for that type of hazard will be higher, such as automobile insurance premiums for young males.

The reverse hazard function looks at a similar event, but in reverse. It describes the likelihood that a disaster or ‘hazard’ just happened in the preceding moment.

The reverse hazard function might be termed the shock function, whose intent is to capture the emotion just after the ‘hazard’ has occurred. The shock function speaks to the likelihood, in a given place and time, that people and/or systems will be in a state of shock.

Good mathematical structure preserves logic when changing words. Replacing ‘disaster’ with ‘miracle’ or ‘good event’ changes the emotional interpretation of the ‘hazard’ function.

A measure for how much good can be expected to happen in the next instant could be called: an Index of Hope.

Proceeding from the reverse hazard function through a positive emotional logic, the chance that something good has just happened, the opposite of a ‘shock function’, as defined above, would be the Index of Joy or Joy Factor.

Why not map an individual’s or a communities’ mental or emotional environment with a similar psychophysics-like approach? The fun part is that there is an intersection between how people are likely to feel within, and something science can count and measure.

I assume that approaching emotion and attitudes can be done with a probabilistic mathematical approach.

Just like the hazard and shock functions, the indices of hope and joy would be influenced in a pragmatic, countable way by the number of times someone can adapt their perspective and see the good in most things happening in someone’s life, community or country, or in other social contexts.

The more often these types of events occur, the more the Joy Factor, as conditioned by counts of pleasant events in people’s memory, would be renewed.

In addition to the quantity of positive events, its quality & magnitude are likely to play a role. That is, how much any pleasant event stands out in someone’s mind, or how much good is accomplished.

There are often many chances to create ‘good events’, like reaching out to another, within the context of an overall disaster. Positive indicators might even move beyond the baseline levels of hope and joy, prior to a disaster.

Math offers small comfort to those who are deeply suffering. Therefore, we respectfully and sympathetically remain silent about how to handle any specific disaster. But mathematical laws are something you can count on! The basic law is: "you can add up bad events, change your perspective, and then add up joyous events".

Should you rebuild and restore your mental and moral map before restoring your physical and emotional map, as there is healing power in the feeling of joy, especially re-connecting with your original, unconditional love & orgasmic joy?

"I call down my Joy to delight the rest of my days!"