Marvin Minsky:Memes. Once you have a species with social transmission of information, then evolution continues on a higher level. The idea here is that the emotions of Pride and Shame evolved as a result of the competition -- inside our species -- between different sets of contagious ideas.
MT: I think pride and shame evolved vastly earlier and for a much more basic - indeed basic to AGI/ robotics - reason. (There is also, I think, considerable evidence now about the existence of these emotions in lower animals. See this week's New Scientist for one. Animals clearly seem to take pride in physical achievements and demonstrations of physical skill). The reason for their early evolution is this: any emotional system exists primarily to reward animals or any agent, including robotic, with emotions of happiness/ sadness for success/ failure in achieving goals - that is fundamental now to cognitive science. However, any emotional system has to make an agent happy/sad however those goals are achieved or not . And that actually is the case. If someone gives you a $100,000 today, as a bequest, without your having done anything to achieve it, you will, almost certainly, still feel happy. An emotional system, therefore, I suggest, has to, and does give animals and agents additional feelings when they achieve goals through their own efforts, or not. Then animals and humans feel more or less happy and good about themselves, (pride), or sad and bad about themselves, (shame). If someone offers Marvin a $100,000 today for the paperback rights to EM, he will feel almost certainly happy AND proud. An emotional system has to do this because any agent learning to succeed and survive in a problematic world, has to learn the difference between goals reached through its own efforts and through luck. No doubt animal pride and shame take much simpler forms - that's why I use the words "feeling good/bad about oneself" - but I'd be surprised if even say, my favourite lowly worm doesn't feel them. ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=e9e40a7e
