On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 10:33 PM, Kim Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Admittedly a bit off-topic but hey - there are some great minds on this list > and it could give birth to something relevant. There! ;-D
I was going to intro myself eventually but because this is interesting to me, I wanted to respond now. :) For now I'll just say I have a background in psychology and computer science engineering. Emotions are primarily useful as an adaptive decision-making heuristic. If you had to act only on rational information, you could take forever to make a decision, and have difficulty committing to it firmly. You also might not have motivation to do important things like eat (or know what you should eat more eagerly) and have sex. Emotions are also vital to social species like humans, because they can automatically and instinctively reinforce social contracts like reciprocity and protection of family. We call people who lack these emotions sociopaths. Emotions like sadness and fear are protective because they tell us what to do more quickly than logic can, and prevent us from social missteps and physical harm. Anna --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
