From: runstrom@wpi.WPI.EDU (Scott P Runstrom)
Subject:  Re: Overcoming Human Limits
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 22:04:46 GMT


> I think emotions need to be scientifically quantified and measured.
> Many people don't think emotions are the same for everyone. Nowadays
> grain is fed to cattle and the staple diet of the leaders of the world is
> meat. This can be shown to be a bad decision on many levels, so why do it?
> Emotional responses are put in the too hard basket for most people. I think
> emotions could be a useful tool for bettering the human condition if more
> effort went into educating children about them. 
> 	The problems with todays society are basic and the same as they have
> been for a long long time - greed,etc but the actual starting point 
> of these things could be addressed better. Why do we have so much trouble 
> with our nature? Is it because we are singular entities, 'we live as we dream
> alone.'. We don't have to live like this but many do.
> I have an answer.... 

>    Prove scientifically that love is the answer and they have to believe you.

> but can it be done? You will have to start a new science and find the best 
> emotion, like by making people carry out tasks while under the influence of
> anger,depression, jealously etc and take it step by step. Controls wouldnt
> be all that hard to find. Do several studies and mark emotions on a scaled 
> map.


You are on the right track, but how exactly do you intend to study emotions
scientifically?  Emotions are for the most part beyond the reach of
scientific study I think.  

Do you map what takles place in the brain during certain emotions?  
All you will get then is a listing of what chemicals are released by 
the brain under what circumstances, and people will say things like: 
"We've discovered that Betabenzotropicalohydraferoussulfistrioxide is 
the chemical responsible for feeling jealous.  And may even "prove" 
it by injecting the substance into someones head and confirming that 
they feel jealous.  But this is not emotion, emotion runs much deeper.  
Certain chemical combinations may be the result of emotions, but not 
emotions themselves.

Do you map which parts of the brain are responsible for certain emotions.
This may be possible, but would only give you a map of the brain's 
reaction to certain emotions.

Do you try to describe, or define, emotions themselves?   People have been 
trying to do this since the beginning of time.  In my opinion, the best
job that has ever been done, and perhaps will ever be done, is through
poetry.  The harnessing of pure emotion in poetic verse.
Unfortunately, few people would call this scientific.

It is possible, however, to take what Pirsig called the "intellectual knife"
(In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) of reason and logic, and try
to break down what exactly comprises emotions.  Unfortunately, this does not 
necessarily get you to any scientific conclusions either.
What you will find is that emotions are made up of combinations of other 
emotions.  Jealosy may be love + fear, etc.  After a lot of thought, you
may be able to plot out emotions on a diagram, and see where each falls
in relation to others.  You may even come up with primary and secondary
emotions, just as there are primary and secondary colors.

You may conclude that there are 3 primary emotions from which all others are 
composed: love, hate, and fear.  But is fear really an emotion? or is it 
simply an instinctual responce to the unknown.  Its probobly an instinct,
something built into the body for survival, above conscious thought,  but more
physical than the true emotions.  So you have a nice triangle, of love, hate,
and the instinctual fear, with all other emotions somewhere in the middle.

Wow, this matches up great with religious philosophy.

The Yin and Yang of Eastern Philosophy, good and evil forever inseperable.

God is love.  - Christian Philosophy

Whoah, now it is getting really heavy.  Cause what is God?  A kind of all 
powerful, omnipresent force in the Universe which exists everywhere and 
nowhere.  Maybe pure energy?   Not in the forms we know it but something much 
more subtle.  Love, the emotion, the energy, the force which is nurtured by 
every entity in the Universe, flowing through us, and  connecting us together,
God?  

So you've proved the existance of God, provided the grand unification theory
that has Physicists miffed, and shown that the path to true knowledge is
beyond logical thought and through fear into pure emotion, all in one swipe.
I don't know, maybe, maybe not.  In any case I dont think too many people 
in the technologically driven world are going to take this too seriously.
They are too busy trying to make a machine that "thinks" without being
alive.  Possible?  maybe, but I doubt it.

Does make you think for a second though, dosent it.

Disclaimer:   I do not even necessarily believe everything I just wrote,
so neither does anyone else.

Newsgroups: alt.society.futures