Emotions don't have opposites. It's not like choosing between driving forward and reverse; you can feel all of them at the same time. Emotions are also not quite as simple as people like to...
Emotions don't have opposites. It's not like choosing between driving forward and reverse; you can feel all of them at the same time.
Emotions are also not quite as simple as people like to believe. Hate and love are things you feel but they are incomplete by themselves. They need to have a subject and something to trigger them. It's not like experiencing pain or cold, because they require you to have thoughts in order to experience them. So the only way to change how I feel about anything would be to change how I think about it; and that's a wild invasion of my privacy and personal autonomy.
I'd say that emotions do have reverses, but what that means exactly is highly subjective, counterintuitive, ambiguous, and different for each person at a given time. Also, an emotion can have...
I'd say that emotions do have reverses, but what that means exactly is highly subjective, counterintuitive, ambiguous, and different for each person at a given time. Also, an emotion can have multiple reverses. It's not like real-world geometry.
Ideally, an emotion-reversing device should figure out what reverse would mean for that person and that assessment would have to be continuously updated.
I think I just have a different mental model for how emotions work. The Bhagavad Gita analogizes them to the horses pulling a chariot (the chariot being you, in your body). The horses each have...
I think I just have a different mental model for how emotions work. The Bhagavad Gita analogizes them to the horses pulling a chariot (the chariot being you, in your body). The horses each have their own drives and impulses, and that’s what provides the motive force for your chariot to get around. The task is for the driver (the self or consciousness) to control and master them so they work in harmony with each other to bring you to your destination.
You can’t trade away, suppress, or hobble any of your horses or you just lose horsepower. You may need to rein one or more of them back so they don’t pull you off course (and some people may need medication to aid in doing so), but they all serve their purpose and have their value.
I'm trying to think of any specific emotion I can feel that is mutually exclusive with something else and I'm drawing a blank. I guess you could make an argument about revulsion/disgust and sexual...
I'd say that emotions do have reverses, but what that means exactly is highly subjective,
I'm trying to think of any specific emotion I can feel that is mutually exclusive with something else and I'm drawing a blank. I guess you could make an argument about revulsion/disgust and sexual attraction, but then I think about Rule34 and have to acknowledge that viewing those as diametrically opposed is clearly not a human universal.
I can love AND hate the same thing at the same time. These compliment rather than cancel each other out. In fact, they can actually end up intensifying each other.
I'm not saying there are definite answers, but such a device could simply access your own ideas (conscious and otherwise) on how emotions work and use those definitions as a basis for its actions.
I'm not saying there are definite answers, but such a device could simply access your own ideas (conscious and otherwise) on how emotions work and use those definitions as a basis for its actions.
I would be worried about ethical implications. Theoretically, this could make killing babies feel wonderful, and looking at my newborn son would make me puke. My brain is pretty fucked up, so I'd...
I would be worried about ethical implications. Theoretically, this could make killing babies feel wonderful, and looking at my newborn son would make me puke.
My brain is pretty fucked up, so I'd probably take the chance with a lot of precautions. But only if it was more of a refined tuning. A complete reversion would be terrible.
I wouldn't want that without my acceptance, it would be a perverse form of authoritarianism.
If you were talking about emotion control or mitigation, I might be more inclined to take the deal. Since my early days, I envied the likes of Data and Spock. I do not cherish strong emotions for the most part.
Also, you might be interested in the short-story Axiomatic, by Greg Egan.
2nd'd, also with a recommendation to read "Escape From Spiderhead", by George Saunders. Emotion controlling & reversing chemicals play a very primary role in the story, though their implications...
2nd'd, also with a recommendation to read "Escape From Spiderhead", by George Saunders. Emotion controlling & reversing chemicals play a very primary role in the story, though their implications are less the point than the environment that the protagonist is interacting with them in.
If your struggles with self control went away, and you could choose how to act independently of your emotions, would you still want your emotions reversed?
If your struggles with self control went away, and you could choose how to act independently of your emotions, would you still want your emotions reversed?
Obviously it would not be okay lol While emotions can get out of hand, you do have emotions for a reason. If they are completely inverted you wouldn't be a functional person. If instead of feeling...
if they did that without your acceptance ? would you be okay
Obviously it would not be okay lol
While emotions can get out of hand, you do have emotions for a reason. If they are completely inverted you wouldn't be a functional person. If instead of feeling accomplished when you did something difficult, you felt disappointment - if you feel excitement and joy over doing nothing. That's just... bad.
If instead of inverting it merely dampens negative emotions, then apart from the rather subjective and nebulous definition of "negative", then it would still not be something you would want to be on for the long term. Perhaps useful in short bursts. It would be similar to local anesthesia - you, uh, definitely want to feel sensations in your life, but for surgeries it's nice that you can go without it.
Fascinating prompt. Asimov explored this a little bit in the Foundation series. I forget which book. There are functional equivalents of these available today for study. Tgose who grow up in...
Fascinating prompt.
Asimov explored this a little bit in the Foundation series. I forget which book.
There are functional equivalents of these available today for study. Tgose who grow up in dysfunctional homes will exhibit these symptoms. More precisely, the emotional response to stimuli is unexpected. They might laugh when someone gets hurt, or cry in anguish at someone’s success.this is because their own success was met with ridicule, and their own suffering made fun of.
I think it would be pretty cruel if the whole world operated this way, we would not last long.
Emotions don't have opposites. It's not like choosing between driving forward and reverse; you can feel all of them at the same time.
Emotions are also not quite as simple as people like to believe. Hate and love are things you feel but they are incomplete by themselves. They need to have a subject and something to trigger them. It's not like experiencing pain or cold, because they require you to have thoughts in order to experience them. So the only way to change how I feel about anything would be to change how I think about it; and that's a wild invasion of my privacy and personal autonomy.
I'd say that emotions do have reverses, but what that means exactly is highly subjective, counterintuitive, ambiguous, and different for each person at a given time. Also, an emotion can have multiple reverses. It's not like real-world geometry.
Ideally, an emotion-reversing device should figure out what reverse would mean for that person and that assessment would have to be continuously updated.
I think I just have a different mental model for how emotions work. The Bhagavad Gita analogizes them to the horses pulling a chariot (the chariot being you, in your body). The horses each have their own drives and impulses, and that’s what provides the motive force for your chariot to get around. The task is for the driver (the self or consciousness) to control and master them so they work in harmony with each other to bring you to your destination.
You can’t trade away, suppress, or hobble any of your horses or you just lose horsepower. You may need to rein one or more of them back so they don’t pull you off course (and some people may need medication to aid in doing so), but they all serve their purpose and have their value.
I'm trying to think of any specific emotion I can feel that is mutually exclusive with something else and I'm drawing a blank. I guess you could make an argument about revulsion/disgust and sexual attraction, but then I think about Rule34 and have to acknowledge that viewing those as diametrically opposed is clearly not a human universal.
I can love AND hate the same thing at the same time. These compliment rather than cancel each other out. In fact, they can actually end up intensifying each other.
I'm not saying there are definite answers, but such a device could simply access your own ideas (conscious and otherwise) on how emotions work and use those definitions as a basis for its actions.
I would be worried about ethical implications. Theoretically, this could make killing babies feel wonderful, and looking at my newborn son would make me puke.
My brain is pretty fucked up, so I'd probably take the chance with a lot of precautions. But only if it was more of a refined tuning. A complete reversion would be terrible.
I wouldn't want that without my acceptance, it would be a perverse form of authoritarianism.
If you were talking about emotion control or mitigation, I might be more inclined to take the deal. Since my early days, I envied the likes of Data and Spock. I do not cherish strong emotions for the most part.
Also, you might be interested in the short-story Axiomatic, by Greg Egan.
2nd'd, also with a recommendation to read "Escape From Spiderhead", by George Saunders. Emotion controlling & reversing chemicals play a very primary role in the story, though their implications are less the point than the environment that the protagonist is interacting with them in.
If your struggles with self control went away, and you could choose how to act independently of your emotions, would you still want your emotions reversed?
Obviously it would not be okay lol
While emotions can get out of hand, you do have emotions for a reason. If they are completely inverted you wouldn't be a functional person. If instead of feeling accomplished when you did something difficult, you felt disappointment - if you feel excitement and joy over doing nothing. That's just... bad.
If instead of inverting it merely dampens negative emotions, then apart from the rather subjective and nebulous definition of "negative", then it would still not be something you would want to be on for the long term. Perhaps useful in short bursts. It would be similar to local anesthesia - you, uh, definitely want to feel sensations in your life, but for surgeries it's nice that you can go without it.
Fascinating prompt.
Asimov explored this a little bit in the Foundation series. I forget which book.
There are functional equivalents of these available today for study. Tgose who grow up in dysfunctional homes will exhibit these symptoms. More precisely, the emotional response to stimuli is unexpected. They might laugh when someone gets hurt, or cry in anguish at someone’s success.this is because their own success was met with ridicule, and their own suffering made fun of.
I think it would be pretty cruel if the whole world operated this way, we would not last long.