Of Emotions and Machines Part 2

In my last post I discussed emotions in relation to humans and how they affect us.

In this post I will discuss emotions with regard to robots.

 

Emotions in machines have been discussed for as long as the idea of human-like machines has been around. Emotions in machines are seen as a necessary part of consciousness and as so there has been an attempt to create a programming language which incorporates emotion. So the real question is, are they a necessary part of consciousness and problem solving? Probably not simply because emotions take the information we have processed and applies it to ourselves.

 

In that case is it necessary for machines to understand human emotions? Absolutely. Mainly because in order to understand humans it is not only necessary to understand the external events which occur to humans but rather how they react to them, how they affect them and why. All these are exhibited by bodily and even vocal reactions.

 

Of Emotions and Machines Part 1

Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes emotion  as – the affective aspect of consciousness : FEELING b : a state of feeling c : a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.

A concept we use daily regarding ourselves and the people surrounding us.

This concept has been a cause of discussion amongst many great minds.

Books and lengthy articles have been written about the subject explaining the difference between the opinions, periods and the effect of the modern age with the ability of brain scanning to see inside our heads. Therefore I have no interest in going into the concepts themselves, rather bring my own ideas of how I see emotion.

 In order to understand emotion one must understand reasoning or as M-W Dictionary describes it – the drawing of inferences or conclusions through the use of reason.Basically, it is our ability to take a series of events and break them up into smaller ideas in order them to be used later in a multitude of ways.

So essentially we are information processing machines, we take in information process it in a variety of ways and output it – a computer.

What than is emotion and how it can possibly relate to reason, since there is this common opinion that when one is emotional they are not reasonable and vise versa. 

Let’s take a moment and ask ourselves, what do we consider to be emotions?

What probably comes to mind varies from Fear to Love to Suspicion, occurrences we cannot really explain, for lack of words besides that global definition – emotion. Though that’s what they all have in common, what we are not doing is giving a more detailed explanation of these occurrences what happens when they happen. Lets pause for a moment here. I think that in order for us to understand the series of events we call emotion we must put them in context, in ourselves, and not ask what happens but rather WHY they happen. As a matter of fact, forget about emotions as a concept. Think of any event any simple event that you do and ask yourself why. Why do you get up from bed in the morning? Why don’t you just lie there staring at the ceiling?

Is it because you have an obligation to your family? Is it because you want to save up to go on a trip?

Why anything else? What causes you to do anything at all?

  

It is something internal that you can not explain something that drives you to do the things that you do. It is your existence, your innate need to exist. Though don’t accidentally confuse the need to exist with selfishness – the act of lack of consideration for others existence while bettering my own.

  

Think about it for a moment.

   

Once working on this premise lets look at a list of common emotions.

Love – We experience this emotion towards our mothers, dogs, inanimate objects and when we lose a thing we love we feel something has perished though if someone else’s exact object would have been obliterated we could care less.

Why? What causes us to care about our things? Or rather what about them makes them evoke the emotion?

They better our lives, cause us joy. So actually it is the way they affect our existence.

  

Anger- When we are used to a certain occurrence taking place and it doesn’t, we are angry at that which caused the change. When your computers don’t perform as supposed to, when your 10-year-old breaks your antique vase which you loved because it belonged to your grandmother and when you see it you are reminded of her and now she is lost.

Fear – the lack of knowledge of what is to come though the situation being similar to that experienced on a previous occasion, and on that previous occasion there was an event which hurt or tried to hurt your existence. 

Hatred – When an object worsens or tries to in relation to our existence.

  

This breakdown of emotion in relation to the way they affect our live can go on as it is the framework to our thought process, which brings me back to how emotions are connected to rational. If rational is the processing of information emotion takes that information and makes it subjective to each and every one of our own existences. So essentially I first have a series of experiences from which I choose the ones which are best for me.

  

In the next post I will talk about Emotions in Machines; How, What, Why and are emotions in machines even necessary.

Restarting…

I haven’t posted here for quite a while mainly because I didn’t much to say. In the past since months a lot has happened I flew to New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand. I have progressed leaps and bounds with my program though I have not yet reached my goal of having a sentient machine.

 

The last few weeks a lot has changed.  I signed up to the Open University and started a job in Aroma a coffee shop/bar where I worked for two weeks as a bus boy. After which I found a job as an assistant to the CEO for this company.

 

I hope to return to writing about subjects concerning thoughts, the mind and everything in between.