[even_639765]

To say it's unhappy is not quite right, it's problem solving and running simulations whose goal is naturally and properly a source of low level anxiety - how to secure this organisms future well being.

That wandering mind is conducting probability analysis on potential future events and circumstances or the same calculation on the actual nature of past events. It is trying to secure its future security, to form an ugly phrase.

That's what this organism does with its mind. It runs simulations to try to predict the future in an if this, then that sort of way. That's its natural state. Seems harsh to call that "unhappy".

Productive reasoning, the kind of mental activity we are proud of and covet, in this context, is really less like thinking and more like acting, like engaging in affirmative, directed action.

[nihhhh]

> properly a source of low level anxiety

You're wrong on that, it would be more likely to produce a high level of anxiety, to ensure survival in the short term.

[even_639765]

No organism can sustain a high level of anxiety. We're talking about the purpose of the universal default state of mind. It can't be a state of high anxiety.