pluto@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Mark E. P. Plutowski) (12/06/88)
One net-poster remarked that emotions and feeling are a natural
by-product of thought.
I imagine that thought is a natural by-product of feeling and emotion.
*************What is the consensus of the rest of you?************
If you like, respond directly to me, and I will summarize and
post the results.
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Mark Plutowski INTERNET: pluto%cs@ucsd.edu
Department of Computer Science, C-014 pluto@beowulf.ucsd.edu
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093 UNIX:{...}!sdcsvax!beowulf!pluto
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Mark Plutowski INTERNET: pluto%cs@ucsd.edu
Department of Computer Science, C-014 pluto@beowulf.ucsd.edu
University of California, San Diego BITNET: pluto@ucsd.bitnet
La Jolla, California 92093 UNIX:{...}!sdcsvax!beowulf!plutosmoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) (12/06/88)
In article <5626@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> pluto@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Mark E. P. Plutowski) writes: >One net-poster remarked that emotions and feeling are a natural >by-product of thought. > >I imagine that thought is a natural by-product of feeling and emotion. > > >*************What is the consensus of the rest of you?************ > I think a quotation from Marvin Minsky might be appropriate here: In this modern era of "information processing psychology" it may seem quaint to talk of mental states; it is more fashionable to speak of representations, frames, scripts, or semantic networks. But while I find it lucid enough to speak in such terms about memories of things, sentences, or even faces, it is much harder so to deal with feelings, insights, and understandings--and all the attitudes, dispositions, and ways of seeing things that go with them. . . . We usually put such issues aside, saying that one must first understand simpler things. But what if feelings and viewpoints are the simpler things? If such dispositions are the elements of which the others are composed, then we must deal with them directly. So we shall view memories as entities that predispose the mind to deal with new situations in old, remembered ways--specifically, as entities that reset the states of parts of the nervous system. Then they can cause that nervous system to be "disposed" to behave as though it remembers. This is why I put "dispositions" ahead of "propositions." Source: Minsky, M. K-Lines: A Theory of Memory. Cognitive Science 4:117-133, 1980.
sewilco@datapg.MN.ORG (Scot E Wilcoxon) (12/07/88)
In article <5626@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> pluto@beowulf.UCSD.EDU writes: >One net-poster remarked that emotions and feeling are a natural >by-product of thought. I imagine that thought is a natural by-product >of feeling and emotion. Emotions and feelings are a "natural byproduct of" how our Terran bodies and minds function. Smell and internal chemicals (ie, "hormones") trigger neuronal activity which humans interpret as emotions. The limbic system seems to report many things which we interpret as "emotional feelings". Some "feelings" are also triggered by instinct or feedback. The "fingernails on blackboard" sound appears to be a primate warning cry which instinctively causes uncomfortable feelings in many humans. Feedback can cause feelings either due to memories triggering neuronal activity which are a "memory" of past feelings, or due to thoughts causing limbic-detected chemicals ("hormones") to be produced. -- Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@DataPg.MN.ORG {amdahl|hpda}!bungia!datapg!sewilco Data Progress UNIX masts & rigging +1 612-825-2607 uunet!datapg!sewilco I'm just reversing entropy while waiting for the Big Crunch.
bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) (12/08/88)
In article <5626@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> pluto@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Mark E. P. Plutowski) writes: > One net-poster remarked that emotions and feeling are a natural > by-product of thought. > > I imagine that thought is a natural by-product of feeling and emotion. The cause and effect linkages operate both ways: feelings give rise to thoughts, and thoughts engender feelings. But if you go back far enough in our evolutionary past, I think you will find that feelings preceded thought, because sensory perception precedes information processing and cognition. --Barry Kort