¹³Furthermore, the more sophisticated theory of reinforcement learning provides another explanation of frustration and suffering in this case. As explained in Chapter 5, in particular footnote 21, the RPE theory says there is frustration solely created by predictions in case you move to a state of lower value, and there is no reward. Now, when the tiger appeared, you suddenly moved to a state where the value (expected future rewards) went down considerably, since if it eats you, there will be no more reward for you. In other words, your chances of getting any positive reward in the future just got smaller (because you won’t get any after being eaten), and thus the expected total reward during the rest of your life (which is the definition of state-value) decreased: This produces a reward loss and thus suffering. In fact, such frantic planning also consumes the agent’s resources, draining batteries either literally or in some figurative sense; this makes the situation even worse by reducing expected future reward due to limited energy, and thus leading to reward loss similarly to what was just explained—and perhaps increases the threat by making the agent weaker and future frustration more probable.