X-Message-Number: 15940 Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 08:33:23 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: emotions and knowledge Hi everyone! I was recently asked 2 questions on Cryonet: 1. Why must a computer have emotions at all? Basically whenver we have the ability to know, we will also have things we WANT TO know, and others we do not. It is that want that comes from our emotional nature. Sure, a robot can do all kinds of things, but unless it has wishes of its own it will do nothing at all unless requested. By emotions I mean here not just intense emotions but others, too. Sure, a computer could do all the things we imagine, but unless it somehow WANTS to do them it will do nothing. And when we come to exact questions, the wants become more exact also. I am particularly aware of this connection because I was originally a mathematician, and mathematics, unlike other sciences, makes this relationship between what we want and the theorems we prove. Basically the same relation exists in other sciences, but it's confused by experiments etc. We do not want to simply prove TRUE theorems, we want to prove theorems that will interest ourselves and others ... and there come the emotions. 2. Why are feelings understood better than knowledge? This is a complex question, and I really wish that you'd been a subscriber to PERIASTRON. That is one way to learn the complexity of both and their interrelations. However, here is the author and title of a book you might read, which might help you see the relation: J LeDoux THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN along the way it will become clear that we do understand emotions better than we understand cognition. But remember that I did not say that we UNDERSTOOD emotions, we just understand them better than we do knowledge. Best wishes and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15940