One idea I have about emotions is that they are evolutionary adaptations which evolved before “reasoning intelligence” (whatever it is) in mammals and their goal was to turn on specific mode of action. For example, anger turns on the mode of action of fight response, which includes higher blood pressure, lower sensitiveness to pain, and making fists. Most of the basic emotions could be explained as modes of action (e.g. fear, sexual arousal), but it is not the full story.
If we read any book on ethology of, say, birds, we found that an important part of their behaviour is demonstrations. A cat is not only ready to fight, but the cat demonstrates its readiness to fight to the opponent in credible way by raising its hair and vocalization. I read that, in the case of birds, demonstrations are more important than actual fights, as demonstrations better show who won and who lost—without physical damage to both sides.
Humans brain is built upon animal brain, so it inherited most of animal features, but in suppressed and more flexible form. In animals, emotions work as a rule-based system which control behavior and signaling. This rule system is relatively simple and “mechanical”, so there is nothing mystical in emotions or difficult for reproduction in AI. (Like in case of a cat: if you see small animal—hunt; if you see animal of your size—fight and demonstrate; if you see the animal much large than you—run). Also, there is nothing “human” in emotions—they are an animal part of us.
Emotions also sometimes can give us quicker estimation of the nature of a situation then reasoning in System 2, as they result from quick estimation of a situation by a large neural net, which could peek up many subtle clues and presents them as one conclusion, like, “Run!”
Given all this, emotions as demonstrations of a chosen mode of action may be used by AI—the same way as national states demonstrate their military posture. They could be also used for quick estimation of a new situation for risks by a artificial neural net trained on such situations.
One idea I have about emotions is that they are evolutionary adaptations which evolved before “reasoning intelligence” (whatever it is) in mammals and their goal was to turn on specific mode of action. For example, anger turns on the mode of action of fight response, which includes higher blood pressure, lower sensitiveness to pain, and making fists. Most of the basic emotions could be explained as modes of action (e.g. fear, sexual arousal), but it is not the full story.
If we read any book on ethology of, say, birds, we found that an important part of their behaviour is demonstrations. A cat is not only ready to fight, but the cat demonstrates its readiness to fight to the opponent in credible way by raising its hair and vocalization. I read that, in the case of birds, demonstrations are more important than actual fights, as demonstrations better show who won and who lost—without physical damage to both sides.
Humans brain is built upon animal brain, so it inherited most of animal features, but in suppressed and more flexible form. In animals, emotions work as a rule-based system which control behavior and signaling. This rule system is relatively simple and “mechanical”, so there is nothing mystical in emotions or difficult for reproduction in AI. (Like in case of a cat: if you see small animal—hunt; if you see animal of your size—fight and demonstrate; if you see the animal much large than you—run). Also, there is nothing “human” in emotions—they are an animal part of us.
Emotions also sometimes can give us quicker estimation of the nature of a situation then reasoning in System 2, as they result from quick estimation of a situation by a large neural net, which could peek up many subtle clues and presents them as one conclusion, like, “Run!”
Given all this, emotions as demonstrations of a chosen mode of action may be used by AI—the same way as national states demonstrate their military posture. They could be also used for quick estimation of a new situation for risks by a artificial neural net trained on such situations.