X-Message-Number: 15925
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 08:54:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Re: about machine intelligence etc

Thomas Donaldson stated:

"1. As seems to happen often, the issue of emotions
etc seems to have been forgotten by some of those
discussing these issues. They deserve the same
attention as intelligence, certainly if you wish to
make a truly autonomous AI machine (not that we've yet
come close, but people are working on it). If we
really want independent machines, we're going to have
to understand not just how our brains produce and deal
with knowledge, but how they produce and deal with
emotions too. Right now, this isn't known ... though
they know more about emotions than about knowledge."

Thomas, could you please elaborate? Which emotions
exactly, in your opinion, would be required for an
autonomous AI to function? It seems to me that an AI
could recognize danger and be cautious without the
feeling of fear. It could achieve goals without the
feeling of joy/satisfaction. It could experience
failure without the feeling of sadness. It could
strongly disagree with another AI without the feeling
of anger. Other than our possible desire for an AI to
be more like us, why would it need emotions?

Secondly, what leads you to say that we know more
about how the brain produces and deals with emotions
than how it produces and deals with knowledge? I don't
recall seeing any of that research in my doctoral
training in psychology.

Best Regards,

Scott Badger

"Vita Perpetuem"

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