Of Emotions and Machines Part 2
June 21, 2007
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.
