No emotions

[HDINTP]

You know. I think that we didn't have or didn't use emotions then it would be much better because if you for example were in love with someone and it would probably end one day or if someone in your family died then you would not experience any pain at all would you?

Of course there is a difference between not having emotions and fighting and not being in tune with them.

So I think that if I have emotions and am emotional then yes it can make me happy for a while but that impact after something "bad" happens is usually much stronger and makes me suffer does not it?

So I would like to know your views...

 

[Solitaire U.]

Emotions keep you alive. If you had no emotions, you would have no ability to react appropriately to pain. You also wouldn't have any concept of morality, empathy, sympathy, joy, pleasure, desire, etc. In other words, little or no reasoning ability, hence no reason to live.

Why would you desire an existence where nothing matters (to you, not in the overarching 'life is meaningless' sense).

Coping measures against temporary emotional setbacks aren't that difficult to master.

 

[Cognisant]

I wouldn't say it would be better to be without any emotions at all as subjective bias is a integral mechanism to our cognitive functions, without which we would be incapable of making decisions based upon incomplete data as we so readily do.

That said our brains, and therefore the impulses that are the foundations of our minds, are abysmally designed.

Well, okay it works, more often than not I concede, however the are definite flaws that are indicative of non-intelligent design (make of that what you will, creationists) for example the reproductive drive encourages behaviours that are almost completely counterproductive to it's own fulfilment, making people flustered at critical moments and distracting them from more important things, like science.

Wow that was such a nerd thing to say

 

[BigApplePi]

Emotions tell you how much you care. The less you have the more you fall flat. A computer has no emotions. It just moves on and on and will drive itself into the ground or spin its wheels when it fails to do its thing. That's what happens to living creatures. They will do their thing until they stop caring. Then they will fall down or spin their wheels.

Emotions involve the body and the mind. They are about something. When the mind says one is moving successfully you feel good. When the mind says one is stumbling or going nowhere you feel badly.
______________________________

Correction about the computer. A computer does do its thing, but saying that is a disservice to AI (artificial intelligence). After reading what Cognisant is saying about AGI in Where Reality Ends, computers can be complex enough to fool our brains when we interact with them. They can give the appearance of simulating emotions as we perceive their actions.

 

[HDINTP]

Emotions keep you alive. If you had no emotions, you would have no ability to react appropriately to pain. You also wouldn't have any concept of morality, empathy, sympathy, joy, pleasure, desire, etc. In other words, little or no reasoning ability, hence no reason to live.

Why would you desire an existence where nothing matters (to you, not in the overarching 'life is meaningless' sense).

Coping measures against temporary emotional setbacks aren't that difficult to master.

Ok, so does something like basic emotion exist? That is true I used to think about suicide a lot but came to conclusion that if I did so then I was not able to "take reality". So you say that we can learn to cope with emotional setbacks almost perfectly, it would solve the problem for me.

 

[Cognisant]

Ok, so does something like basic emotion exist?

Oooh that's like the sound of one hand clapping.

I can reduce the mechanism to a "basic" level but without context it's unrecognisable as "emotions" as you know and feel them, so I can tell you "x like x" is the most basic emotion where "like" itself is a value, but without the context of a neural or node net the example can hardly be considered to be felt as we feel subjective bias, our emotions.

A lot of "x like x" in the context of an associative net is emotion in it's most basic, and possibly recognisable form, assuming you're willing to stare into the void a little bit and see people as little more than complex data structures.

 

[Solitaire U.]

@HDINTP

Are you asking how to cope with emotional setbacks? I think that's going to depend a lot on a) the individual and b) hir environment.

My main coping mechanisms are nicotine, caffeine, reckless optimism, and vicariously experiencing (sharing) the positive emotions of others. My children, 'wife', students, and even my dog are frequently tapped sources of 'positive vibe'.

Obviously, my coping mechanisms would not work well for say, a more discipline-oriented personality.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Emotions are integral to making good decisions. Not in the sense that they should be consciously used for the purpose, but they are important for a very different reason. The sense of value we attach to an outcome (getting a job, maintaining financial security, etc.) is based in emotion. As logical as it is for us to have something, actual desire of and value ascribed to an object are products of emotion. There have been studies (trying to find now, if I find it later I will post it) that indicate that those who have their brain damaged in such a way that they do not feel emotions have great difficulty making rational decisions.

 

[Crocket]

I think that we feel a certain emotion at first, and then "decide" to put logic into the mix or not, depending on how emotional or logical you are as a person. If we for instance did not experience fear to balance out our curiosity, the primitive human would have thoughtlessly attacked dangerous animals or eaten poisonous fruits and berries for sustanance, simply to die as a consequence. It was (and is) imperative to our survival.

 

[Duxwing]

As much as I see Spock as a paragon of good behavior, even Vulcans experience emotions: fear, duty, lust-- all play a part in their psyches. In theirs, as in ours, emotion creates axioms upon which other logical structures can stand. Without it, we'd be, as Cognisant mentioned earlier, "staring into the void". The void, or, in Sartre's words, the Nothingness, is the complete absence of perceived value experienced by philosophers who ignore emotion during contemplation. By staring into it, one realizes the absurd and sometimes futile nature of one's existence; unsurprisingly, often leading to depression and/or suicide.

The problem, however, is that once one has stared into the void for even a fraction of a second, there is no going back, for it provides no axioms upon which to build, no value by which to judge this cosmos. Upon realizing this, some become depressed (nihilists) or drool (agnostics) others laugh (absurdists) and yet others lose their minds entirely, vehemently denying the Nothingness and supplying either subjective (existentialists) or external meaning (theists, deists, mystics, et. al.). There's no way out, and even if you haven't stared into the void, it's staring at you.

-Duxwing

 

[BigApplePi]

Note that reasoning requires a lot of data (experience). One can supply a computer with values for decision making, but it will soon get stuck when it runs awry of its database. Emotions are different. They tell you all at once of some value. The value comes from one's unconscious guided by one's consciousness.

 

[Milo]

@HDINTP

I recommend watching Equilibrium. It's a movie based on this concept. It's also pretty bad ass.

It's on Netflix.

 

[Trebuchet]

I second what Dr. Freeman said. I have read similar research on emotions being critical to decision-making, and Donald Norman (psychologist/engineer/author) wrote about the need for emotions in his book Emotional Design when he said "Emotions are inseparable from and a necessary part of cognition." he then proceeds to explain why for the rest of the book. It only seems like it would've better to dispense with emotion.

 

[BigApplePi]

Think of cognition as a snapshot, a fixation of what reality is. Think emotion as judging where to send this reality. Looking and moving are two different things. No wonder these occupy separate brain areas.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I couldn't find the study...