I’ll be interested once researchers have an implementation-level argument for why their abstract emotional state space explains what really happens in brains
Easy: we have separate hardware for approach and avoidance behaviors, rather than a single linear “what’s the value of this” system. It’s easier to first evolve systems for avoiding bad things and approaching good things, than it is to develop a decision-making system that weighs pros and cons and decides which way to go. You can develop a disambiguation system after the first two systems are there, but it’d be hard to make from scratch.
(This, btw, is why I think utility expressed as a single number is lossy with respect to human values: when humans have both utilities and disutilities in a scenario, they usually experience conflict, not neutrality or indifference!)
This, btw, is why I think utility expressed as a single number is lossy with respect to human values: when humans have both utilities and disutilities in a scenario, they usually experience conflict, not neutrality or indifference!
That is a very insightful comment, I find. Let me ponder on that...
I expect then that some approach-related and avoidance-related ‘emotions’ can co-activate (although you’d expect some mutual inhibition circuits, perhaps in some cases it’s mediated only in deciding what concrete physical action to take).
Easy: we have separate hardware for approach and avoidance behaviors, rather than a single linear “what’s the value of this” system. It’s easier to first evolve systems for avoiding bad things and approaching good things, than it is to develop a decision-making system that weighs pros and cons and decides which way to go. You can develop a disambiguation system after the first two systems are there, but it’d be hard to make from scratch.
(This, btw, is why I think utility expressed as a single number is lossy with respect to human values: when humans have both utilities and disutilities in a scenario, they usually experience conflict, not neutrality or indifference!)
That is a very insightful comment, I find. Let me ponder on that...
It does seem easy. Thanks.
I expect then that some approach-related and avoidance-related ‘emotions’ can co-activate (although you’d expect some mutual inhibition circuits, perhaps in some cases it’s mediated only in deciding what concrete physical action to take).