Just wanted to share some thoughts that's been on my mind lately.. I was sitting around in my room today thinking about consciousness and where it really comes from. I thought about what makes a human conscious and a robot not as a robot could be programmed to, like a human, receive information about it's surroundings through sensory input (like sight, hearing, touch etc.) and analyze this information based on a system of rules defined by the programmer. As technology advanced we'll build machines able to process such information superiorly to humans. So what separates such a robot from a human? Only thing I can really think of is EMOTION. The robot could easily be programmed to have different "states of mind" based on the different sensory input. Ie. robot gets patted on the head which changes the state to happy, or robot gets punched in head which changes the state to sad. In humans these states are set by substances in the brain (seretonin, dopamine etc.). Though, being in the state 'happy' would only mean the robot knows it's happy, not that it could actually feel joy because there is nothing with which it can perceive it's own emotions. So what is it in humans that allows us to perceive emotion? Beyond the smile on our face and the physical comfort we feel when we're happy or content, and the frown and discomfort when we're sad or annoyed, there must be something else in us through which our emotional state is actually perceived. I think that our ability to have emotions about our perceptions must be what makes us conscious, and without it we'd be like the robot only perceiving and analyzing our surroundings but not really being conscious of them. I've been pondering this a lot lately and I'd like to hear what others have to say about it. I really like to think that emotion/consciousness resides in the 'SOUL', because thinking of myself as a soulless bio machine just makes me feel way too depressed for my own good. Hope I made sense, I suck at writing..
well first off you have to ask what an emotion really is. you cant touch,taste,see,smell, or hear them. i think emotions are energies.
Well, we know our emotional state are set by signal substances in our brain, dopamine for instance. More dopamine = more happy, less dopamine = more sad. Basically just another variable defining the state in which the machine that is your body is currently in.
I think consciousness is awareness and that emotion is only part of the equation. When I think of a robot I think of a mechanical structure that is programmed to act in a certain way based on how it was programmed. In humans, emotion is like a two-way stimulus that is programmed into us to make us act a certain way. For example, if we're happy we tend to think happy things and make positive actions. If something good happens to us, we become happy. Yeahhh that's my take on it.
emotion is a very complex thing. we know its mostly brought on by chemicals that are responding to our inner animal natures. "love" (or at least a form of extreme bliss associated with love) is brought on by chemicals released when we met a partner of proper breeding status. this doesnt at all mean emotions like love arent real, just that they can be controlled, but in that I think we gain consciousness through our free will. "normal" animals (or at least, to the extent that we know them) are driven by base biological and genetic processes. they sleep, feed, fuck, kill, die and their children repeat the cycle. I think humans gained consciousness whenever we grew the proper cognitive faculties to question. once we gained that, we started to explore and control the world for ourselves. invention, discovery, all of it started with the question and with that we were able to seperate ourselves from our base animal selves and gain consciousness and through the consciousness we have obtained a higher level of living, we can love others that have no biological "advantages", we can supress emotions and deny those biological desires; creating the human condition just my two cents
I think an emotion is purely senseical and our procci wouldn't happen without being introduced to the universe. I believe the way we think is akin to how our surroundings work, no robot would be a superior thinker to us because they would be subject to the same procedures. For example, every time I end a shower I push in the nosel and close the pin, that could be part of the emotion I feel for taking a shower and I often do it without having a moral argument or conclusion.
hmm well why do dopamine and serotonin makes us feel happy? what are these feelings we get from these chemicals?why do we even get feelings from dopamine attaching to a receptor?
Consciousness = illusion resulting from the brain's processing of information. But speaking of consciousness, has anyone here read Anathem? There's some absolutely fascinating stuff in there about the nature of consciousness.
I actually had to write a paper for a class on consciousness last year that was pretty similar to this topic. Keep it mind it's theoretically possible to create a program that emulates consciousness and emotion, consciousness and emotion seemed intertwined and are not necessarily exclusively human.
If you could make a robot with sensories equal to those of a human (and you could, or better even than humans), then you could (probly just as easily) make sensors for different chemicals. The trick would be the programming behind the chemical output/reception. This would take a massive harddrive or some other way to store the gigs upon gigs of useless program. If you think about the way you learn something and then use it, you use a whole bunch of if,then statements. Example: If the sun is shining, I should put on sunscreen. The robot would basically be rewriting/recompiling its code at all times. This is doable, but it would be very difficult to get the logic/correct flow. this was a very enlightening thread. I actually enjoy thinking about stuff like this, its the precursor to programming. Going through what I just went through is pretty much how I get started on a programming assignment. This project would take much more thought though. the idea is very interesting. chemicals could of course be recycled/reused, or constantly added every so often like a car takes gas. I'm gonna +rep on this one.
I doubt you would even need to have any chemical reactions at all. Imagine if you will a computer that is both powerful enough to mimic everything a human brain can do, and is able to connect with a functioning human brain. If you had the two connected for long enough you would be able to (theoretically) create an algorithm/program that would mimic that persons consciousness. It does not seem too crazy considering the innovations being done (they were able to use a monkey to control a robotic arm with his brain, they have small basic robots that are driven by neurons from the brain of a mouse).
Scientifically, emotions are electrical sensors in the hypothalamus that when excited, release a chemical messenger called a peptide. Peptides then run through the neural network sending chemical messages to the brain to depress certain areas of the brain and elevate others; all of which take place in the neo cortex, the high complex network of the brain. Science hasn't fully revealed the full complex, but with bio-neurology, we are closing the gap. Then there is the philosophical view on it, which this is so immense that presenting it in even the simplest concept, is incredibly hard. In metaphysics however, senses could possibly be the link between the higher conscious and the physical world; an umbilical cord to matter. Looking at it like that could possibly be the way to meld the two, but who the fuck knows.
totally agree, emotions are energies. your emotions chnage with the vibes of people/places you are around.
i believe emotions are an animalian response to stressors. consciousness is a construct of the brain determined by sensory inputs.