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From: mwd@cray.com (Mark Dalton)
Subject: Re: emotions (a bit long explaination)
Message-ID: <1995Jan1.034336.6510@walter.cray.com>
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Date: 1 Jan 95 03:43:36 CST
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Gene Levinson (gl1@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: In <jesse.3.00110582@spine.com> jesse@spine.com (jesse montrose) writes: 
: >
: >>Emotion, I believe, would involve (a) internal propensities for 
: >>interpretation of external events in particular ways that generate 
: >>feelings that have value judgements. 
: >
: >It's hard to define them without using "feelings" isn't it?  I think 
: it's bordering on circular though, 
: >"emotions" and "feelings" are practically synonyms:
: >
: >(from Random House)
: >feeling:
: >                  5.  an emotion or emotional perception or 
: >                       attitude: a feeling of joy.
: >
: >emotion:
: >                  2.  any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, 
: >                       hate, love, etc.

I think the difference is emotions are the state and feelings are the
perception (awareness) of the state, would be a way to diffentiate them.
(I am not sure I agree with the definition above completely, yeah I know
it is a dictionary  (^8 ).  But when I think about 'a emotion' it is
something that can affect my actions without my cognitive awareness.

A feeling is perceived and a emotion is just there affecting feelings,
actions, thoughts and perceptions.  The fear/arousal example would look
like:
	The girl has a internal state (emotion ?) of fear, but a perception
	(feeling ?) of arousal.

  I am not sure if this sounds true correct.  It seems that the girl would
  have mixed feelings.  The reason that there may seem to be a varied
  interpretation in the 'emotion' (internal state) would be because there
  is more than one emotion we are talking about.

	Assumptions:
		1. The girl is attracted to the boy (not repulsed).
		    - Hence a 'state' or lack of a repulsed 'state'.
		2. The girl knows (intellectual knowledge) that she is
		   probably safe of harm (at least from the roller coaster).
		    - Hence a 'state' of safety
		3. There is also the sense (past experience the boy asking
		   to be with her, previous actions, and 'other senses')
		   that will add to the internal 'state' of the girl and
		   how she will react.
		4. Plus the physiological affect of the actions of the roller
		   coaster [weightlessness, adrenalin rush (partially due
		   to the fear/excitement), etc.].

Well if the definitions of emotion/feeling are right or wrong, there are
2 basic things:  the internal state and the perception of the combination
	         of states.

	Factors of perception of the feeling:
		1. Current emotional states.
		2. Associations with those states (i.e. someone raised in
			a place where certain feelings were not okay may have
			other emotions stirred up - guilt, fear, anger,
			or joy). This would depend on the emotion and how
			they react to it.
		3. Other states of the indidual - physical (rest,comfort,
		   physiological stuff - dietary, sugar, mineral, caffeine),
		   Other stressors.  (And associations to the current 'state').
		4. The external surroundings (and associations to that).
		   Say the girl was on the roller coaster, and she associates
		   the roller coaster to death (perhaps a friend had died on
		   one last year, this will affect hear perception of the
		   other internal states).  (Another example would be an
		   association of throwing up everytime).
		5. The intentions of the individual.
		   (Say the girl is trying to overcome her fear of roller
		   coasters).  That will probably be where her intellectual
		   focus will be (rather than the boy).

: I believe we've still left out some important puzzle pieces. Emotions 
: also involve self-awareness: a combination of hormonal influences with 
: cognitive processes that result in a highly subjective sense of self, a 
: sense of ones relation to others, and some incredibly powerful drives. 

Exactly.  The human is a complex system, even just the hormonal system
of regulation.  I did a paper in college on Growth Hormone, Releasing
Factors releasing factor.

  Pre-Releasing factor --> Growth Hormone Releasing facter --> Growth Hormone

  Here there are feedback loops at each level, there are MANY inhibitors
  and enhancers at each level and others that affect the inhibitors and
  enhancers (or each other).  (It is like what affects the weather or ecosystem)

: So, can a subjective feeling state be generated in the CPU "mind" of a 
: computer? Obviously, it would lack congruence to human emotions-- it has 
: no pituitary, hypothalamus, and probably many fewer simulated neurons. 
: But could a subjective, powerful self-referential set of hormonal and 
: cognititive drives not be simulated? Could it not generate a stream of 
: subjective thought that is self-referential? Could it not influence 
: decision-making in an autonomous, detail-unpredictable way? 

I think it could (or anything can) be simulated, the question is the time
it would take versus the accuracy (and disk space).  I think for emotions
the program would need a history of associations.  Perhaps a 2 state emotion
with other factors of (available CPU and Memory as factors), or pain versus
feeling good (free versus trapped).  A image, smell, thought, can invoke a
emotion/state in a person, The could perhaps be translated to a 'process'
on a computer - say another process running at the same time.  Then you
can add sharing (when someone gives you something voluntarily that usually
invokes a state of 'good', or translates to feeling good/better.

I think (stepping out on a new limb) (^8 it could like this, to start with:
(I think parts of the Prisoner Dilema would be helpful).  Also use fuzzy
sets, or something like that.  Basically so there is room for change/randomness.
Combine the factors and likelihoods to respond.
	1. CPU availability
	2. Memory availability
	3. Competition
	4. Sharing
	5. 'Belonging', 'aloneness'. - Are there other process (of course),
		Familiarity is an important part (the root process will
		be very familiar (parents?).  Then perhaps others on the
		system could act as 'mates', 'children', 'siblings', and
		even neighbors depending on memory locations.
	6. Ability to 'relate'/communicate.  Process would respond in
	   various ways depending on the actions.  (Look at the Prisoner
	   Dilema).
	7. Memory (how did they react last time, what do I associate this
	   person with - sharing, kind, trustworth or non-sharing, etc.).
	   And how have I been treated in the past (if always treated kindly
	   and sharingly, then *likely* to trust and share, if treated unkind,
	   non-sharing,etc. then will be *likely* to do the same).

The closer someone is to you, 'belonging' (family,neighbors,etc.) the more
likily a specific action will occur.

	1. Friend/neighbor/family - trust,kindness,sharing
	2. Enemy/angry neighbor   - Unsure,perhaps mean, take(or not share)

	3. Someone unfamiliar     - Individual may start out:
				 1. Trusting, sharing (1 - 100% of the time)
				 2. Mistrusting, non-sharing (1 - 100% time)
				 3. Unsure (random) (1 - 100% of the time)
	     The reaction would be based The above factors.

Example:
	1. CPU availability at: 50% - Good, associate as good = 70%.
	2. Memory availability at: 60% - good, associate as good = 80%.
	3. Competition at:  40% (Based on the amount of swapping ?), or
	   on interprocess communication (micro world), where a process
	   will 'choose' to fight for a spot.
	4. Sharing at: 70%  (interprocess communication where the process
	   will 'choose' to swapout or allow another its spot, the value
	   would be determined by the others willingness to purposefully
	   give).  (Here you go first)
	5. 'Belonging','aloneness', 'community','safety' at: 10% or lower
	   at the beginning, as time goes on the prcess grows familiar
	   and thus the value would raise.  And depending on the eniviroment
	   the processes 'around' it would fluctuate.  (Needs to go to the
	   'other side of memory' (the bad section) to get data (school,work).
	   I baby process would be very insecure,unsure, as they develop
	   they associations of people(processes) with actions/emotions/states.
	6. Ability to 'relate' at: 10%
	   This also would start out low as a child and hopefully grow as
	   interactions occur.  The ability/willingness to communicate,
	   one learns to communicate, but if you move, have a new group
	   of friends you may need to relearn.  Or in another country learn
	   a new language/actions/interpretations, with some commonalities
	   usually (smile mostly positive, but can be interpreted with
	   various intentions).
	7. Memory (past experience) Since the process is new: it is pretty
	   random, depends on physical states (More memory, more food,
	   and a bit selfish).

	- Also perhaps a kindness/curtousy like if there are other processes
	  or if new processes come in, the process may submit a differnent
	  job with less memory or lower its priority (background usage).

	- Priority levels?

This is just a idea, of course there probably MANY other things that
could be added.  And a better mechanism of interactions would be good
(or atleast explaination).  Of how each would enhance or inhibit each
other (in biological systems there is much controlled by multiple influences,
thresholds and repeated 'paths'.

Good luck!

Mark
-----
Mark Dalton       CH3-S-CH2 H H                    H      O       H
Cray Research,Inc.      |   | |                    |       \      |
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