Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!ames!oliveb!pyramid!prls!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Language-related capabilities (was Re: Human-human communication)
Message-ID: <33428@linus.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jun 88 16:10:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: linus.33428
References: <32403@linus.UUCP> <238@proxftl.UUCP> <700@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid, NY
Lines: 34
Summary: Alarms and excursions!  Now what do I do??

In his rejoinder to Tom Holroyd's posting, K. Watkins writes:

>Question:  Is the difficulty of accurate linguistic expression of emotion at
>all related to the idea that emotional beings and computers/computer programs
>are mutually exclusive categories?
>
>If so, why does the possibility of sensory input to computers make so much
>more sense to the AI community than the possibility of emotional output?  Or
>does that community see little value in such output?  In any case, I don't see
>much evidence that anyone is trying to make it more possible.  Why not?

These are interesting questions, and I hope we can mine some gold along
this vein.

I don't think that it is an accident that emotional states are difficult
to capture in conventional language.  My emotions run high when I find
myself in a situation where words fail me.  If I can name my emotional
state, I can avoid the necessity of acting it out nonverbally.  Trouble
is, I don't know the names of all possible emotional states, least of
all the ones I have not visited before.

Nevertheless, I think it is useful for computer programs to express
emotions.  A diagnostic message is a form of emotional expression.
The computer is saying, "Something's wrong.  I'm stuck and I don't
know what to do."  And sure enough, the computer doesn't do what
you had in mind.  (By the way, my favorite diagnostic message is
the one that says, "Your program bombed and I'm not telling you
why.  It's your problem, not mine.")

So, as I see it, there is a possibility of emotional output.  It is
the behavior exhibited under abnormal circumstances.  It is what the
computer does when it doesn't know what to do or how to do what you asked.

--Barry Kort