Comment by genewitch
1 day ago
> Why are emotions so special? they're just algorithms like any other.
That's a pretty bold claim.
There's uncountable inputs. It's like trying to accurately predict the weather - chaos theory or something. Emotions are "essentially" gas exchange, but the areas and rate or whatever are not standardized across humans.
Emotions are not inputs, they are outputs first. we process information using internal algorithms that we developed as a result of our life experience and genetic coding and the result is an emotional verdict over some input. That emotional verdict is presented to our decision making algorithms as input, we can ignore it or act on it.
I have neither experienced or observed anything about human emotions that indicates they are in any way chaotic, random or unexplainable. We have beliefs, memories and experiences. emotions always use these variables and produce some output. Not only are emotions deterministic, but they are used by any number of people, from spies, to advertisers, to state-level disinformation propagandists to manipulate large numbers of peoples reliably.
>I have neither experienced or observed anything about human emotions that indicates they are in any way chaotic, random or unexplainable
Famously, human experience is quite subjective (gestures broadly at 3 millenniums worth of philosophy), so I don't believe your individual experience means much here.
> Not only are emotions deterministic
So is your claim that 100% of all human emotions are deterministic? That's quite a bold claim don't you think?
It's possible the universe is deterministic, so there is that.
> Emotions are not inputs, they are outputs first.
i never said emotions were inputs. The gas exchange and the resulting reaction or "thoughts" or "emotions" have uncountable inputs. Some people don't have the ability to "put themselves in someone else's shoes", some people do. Some people can see pictures in their "mind's eye" and some can't.
I don't think we're talking about the same thing, based on your last sentence.