Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!amdcad!sun!quintus!ok From: ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence Message-ID: <800@quintus.UUCP> Date: 2 Dec 88 18:03:08 GMT References: <484@soleil.UUCP> <1654@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <1908@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <281@esosun.UUCP> <177@iisat.UUCP> Sender: news@quintus.UUCP Reply-To: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc. Lines: 20 In article <177@iisat.UUCP> paulg@iisat.UUCP (Paul Gauthier) writes: >Feelings are >simply manifestations of the mind's goals and needs. You feel 'sad' when >you don't attain a goal, this is simply a negative feedback response to >prd you into trying harder. It might not work in all cases, but it helps. If I heard that you had died unexpectedly, I would feel sad. But the preservation of your life would not previously have been one of my goals. (I would, for example, be unable to distinguish you from Gilbert Cockton.) There's an interesting question here about human psychology: which emotions are innate, and which emotions are culture-dependent. Lakoff's book includes a list of apparently culture-independent emotional states (unfortunately I left W,F&DT at home, so I can't quote it), and I was surprised at how short it was. One anthropological commonplace is the distinction between "guilt" cultures and "shame" cultures. Most humans presumably have the capacity to learn these emotions, but apparently we do not all experience the same emotions in the same circumstances. (Which emotions a culture has basic _terms_ for is another question.)