Dath ilani know they have a problem where a lot of them aren't very happy a lot of the time.  Their current approach is to have a societywide norm that unusually unhappy people shouldn't have kids, and, to a lesser extent, that unusually happy people should have a lot of kids.

But that takes time, for so now, the dath ilani carefully tweak their environment to make it possible for as many people as possible to be happy within the framework of their current genetics.  This takes a lot of tweaking and a lot of work, and the dath ilani don't particularly realize there's anything odd about that; they don't have other human worlds to compare themselves to.

The dath ilani carefully raise their children in an environment free of spoilers about sex existing or how it works, so that young adults may have the pleasure of discovering that for themselves, among themselves - in an effort to preserve every bit of that rare stuff that is fun.  They relegate pornography to the Ill-Advised Consumer Goods Store, because if a dath ilani reads a book about interesting people having incredibly interesting and exciting and fun and complicated sex, they will start to hold their own sexual encounters to the same standard, before they would naturally have become bored.  Why wantonly burn up the time remaining until ordinary sex starts to seem unsatisfying and repetitive and not good enough?  - so thinks dath ilan.

They're aware they have a problem, an aspect of reality that isn't as good it could be.  Of course they're aware.  Dath ilani, by their nature, and by comparison to an average human world descending from their 50,000-year ancestor, are aware of dissatisfactions like that to an incredible degree.  Their world is so optimized not least because any visible fixable problem would bug the crap out of them.

The dath ilani are aware they have a problem where it's hard for people to be happy, and they're applying all of the heritage-optimization pressure they can spare from more important matters to solving it.  They don't know they have an unusual problem.  The dath ilani don't know that their average species-cousin gets bored less quickly, or can much more easily become happy.

The dath ilani don't know that their cousins experience emotions, in general, more strongly than dath ilani do.  The difference is more pronounced for positive emotions, but it's true about negative emotions too.

How'd it happen?  Nobody knows, at this point, they screened their history.  Obviously it wasn't done on purpose.  Probably there's something like a balance, inside minds, some sheerly neural relative weight of cortex and thalamus; and the ancestors of Civilization selected on themselves for intelligence without paying proper attention and obeisance to that balance.

So dath ilan dances, less happily and excitedly than average, like nobody is watching.

Dath ilani know they have a problem where a lot of them aren't very happy a lot of the time.  Their current approach is to have a societywide norm that unusually unhappy people shouldn't have kids, and, to a lesser extent, that unusually happy people should have a lot of kids.

But that takes time, for so now, the dath ilani carefully tweak their environment to make it possible for as many people as possible to be happy within the framework of their current genetics.  This takes a lot of tweaking and a lot of work, and the dath ilani don't particularly realize there's anything odd about that; they don't have other human worlds to compare themselves to.

The dath ilani carefully raise their children in an environment free of spoilers about sex existing or how it works, so that young adults may have the pleasure of discovering that for themselves, among themselves - in an effort to preserve every bit of that rare stuff that is fun.  They relegate pornography to the Ill-Advised Consumer Goods Store, because if a dath ilani reads a book about interesting people having incredibly interesting and exciting and fun and complicated sex, they will start to hold their own sexual encounters to the same standard, before they would naturally have become bored.  Why wantonly burn up the time remaining until ordinary sex starts to seem repetitive? - so thinks dath ilan.

They're aware they have a problem, an aspect of reality that isn't as good as it could be.  Of course they're aware.  Dath ilani, by their nature, and by comparison to an average human world descending from their 50,000-year ancestor, are aware of dissatisfactions like that to an incredible degree.  Their world is so optimized not least because any visible problems bug the crap out of them.

The dath ilani are aware they have a problem where it's hard for people to be happy, and they're applying all of the heritage-optimization pressure they can spare from more important matters to solving it.  They don't know they have an unusual problem.  The dath ilani don't know that their average species-cousin gets bored less quickly, or can much more easily become happy.

The dath ilani don't know that their cousins experience emotions, in general, more strongly than dath ilani do.  The difference is more pronounced for positive emotions, but it's true about negative emotions too.

How'd it happen?  Nobody knows, at this point, they screened their history.  Obviously it wasn't done on purpose.  Probably there's something like a balance, inside minds, some sheerly neural relative weight of cortex and thalamus; and the ancestors of Civilization selected on themselves for intelligence without paying proper attention and obeisance to that balance.

So dath ilan dances, less happily and excitedly than average, like nobody is watching.

Dath ilani know they have a problem where a lot of them aren't very happy a lot of the time.  Their current approach is to have a societywide norm that unusually unhappy people shouldn't have kids, and, to a lesser extent, that unusually happy people should have a lot of kids.

But that takes time, for so now, the dath ilani carefully tweak their environment to make it possible for as many people as possible to be happy within the framework of their current genetics.  This takes a lot of tweaking and a lot of work, and the dath ilani don't particularly realize there's anything odd about that; they don't have other human worlds to compare themselves to.

The dath ilani carefully raise their children in an environment free of spoilers about sex existing or how it works, so that young adults may have the pleasure of discovering that for themselves, among themselves - in an effort to preserve every bit of that rare stuff that is fun.  They relegate pornography to the Ill-Advised Consumer Goods Store, because if a dath ilani reads a book about interesting people having incredibly interesting and exciting and fun and complicated sex, they will start to hold their own sexual encounters to the same standard, before they would naturally have become bored.  Why wantonly burn up the time remaining until ordinary sex starts to seem repetitive? - so thinks dath ilan.

They're aware they have a problem, an aspect of reality that isn't as good as it could be.  Of course they're aware.  Dath ilani, by their nature, and by comparison to an average human world descending from their 50,000-year ancestor, are aware of dissatisfactions like that to an incredible degree.  Their world is so optimized not least because any visible problems bug the crap out of them.

The dath ilani are aware they have a problem where it's hard for people to be happy, and they're applying all of the heritage-optimization pressure they can spare from more important matters to solving it.  They don't know they have an unusual problem.  The dath ilani don't know that their average species-cousin gets bored less quickly, or can much more easily become happy.

The dath ilani don't know that their cousins experience emotions, in general, more strongly than dath ilani do.  The difference is more pronounced for positive emotions, but it's true about negative emotions too.

How'd it happen?  Nobody knows, at this point, they screened their history.  Obviously the change didn't happen on purpose.  Probably there's something like a balance, inside minds, some sheerly neural relative weight of cortex and thalamus; and the ancestors of Civilization selected on themselves for intelligence without paying proper attention and obeisance to that balance.

So dath ilan dances, less happily and excitedly than average, like nobody is watching.

Dath ilani know they have a problem where a lot of them aren't very happy a lot of the time.  Their current approach is to have a societywide norm that unusually unhappy people shouldn't have kids, and, to a lesser extent, that unusually happy people should have a lot of kids.

But that takes time, so for now, the dath ilani carefully tweak their environment to make it possible for as many people as possible to be happy within the framework of their current genetics.  This takes a lot of tweaking and a lot of work, and the dath ilani don't particularly realize there's anything odd about that; they don't have other human worlds to compare themselves to.

The dath ilani carefully raise their children in an environment free of spoilers about sex existing or how it works, so that young adults may have the pleasure of discovering that for themselves, among themselves - in an effort to preserve every bit of that rare stuff that is fun.  They relegate pornography to the Ill-Advised Consumer Goods Store, because if a dath ilani reads a book about interesting people having incredibly interesting and exciting and fun and complicated sex, they will start to hold their own sexual encounters to the same standard, before they would naturally have become bored.  Why wantonly burn up the time remaining until ordinary sex starts to seem repetitive? - so thinks dath ilan.

They're aware they have a problem, an aspect of reality that isn't as good as it could be.  Of course they're aware.  Dath ilani, by their nature, and by comparison to an average human world descending from their 50,000-year ancestor, are aware of dissatisfactions like that to an incredible degree.  Their world is so optimized not least because any visible problems bug the crap out of them.

The dath ilani are aware they have a problem where it's hard for people to be happy, and they're applying all of the heritage-optimization pressure they can spare from more important matters to solving it.  They don't know they have an unusual problem.  The dath ilani don't know that their average species-cousin gets bored less quickly, or can much more easily become happy.

The dath ilani don't know that their cousins experience emotions, in general, more strongly than dath ilani do.  The difference is more pronounced for positive emotions, but it's true about negative emotions too.

How'd it happen?  Nobody knows, at this point, they screened their history.  Obviously the change didn't happen on purpose.  Probably there's something like a balance, inside minds, some sheerly neural relative weight of cortex and thalamus; and the ancestors of Civilization selected on themselves for intelligence without paying proper attention and obeisance to that balance.

So dath ilan dances, less happily and excitedly than average, like nobody is watching.