What Is the Objective Function of the Human Race

Civilization progresses when we take care of each other. So far, we have been unusually focused on hyper growth, but if we continue at this rate, we'd have 9 Billion people demanding 100x more resources that 8 Billion people need today. That is not going to work.

What if instead of growth, we tried to optimize for human happiness? Storytelling is a mechanism for trust at scale. What story would help 8 billion people to survive together? That should be our objective function.