Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!gatech!ncar!ames!oliveb!pyramid!prls!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Definitions of intelligence and complexity
Summary: Anger vs. Worry, Confidence vs. Anxiety
Keywords: Social construct, productivity measure
Message-ID: <43014@linus.UUCP>
Date: 15 Dec 88 15:56:46 GMT
References: <448@uceng.UC.EDU> <42327@linus.UUCP> <6973@venera.isi.edu> <42575@linus.UUCP> <7032@venera.isi.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid, NY
Lines: 32

In article <7032@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar)
resumes the discussion about the role of emotions in problem solving:

 > ... what I had in mind was much of the discussion about an Anger
 > agent which arises thoughout the book [Minsky's _Society of Mind_].  
 > It does not strike me as unreasonable to assume that worrying
 > could play a similar role [as anger in motivating work].
 > I hope this makes my case clearer.

I get your point.  But I do think there is a meaningful distinction
between anger as a motivator and worry as a stage of problem solving.

One of the causes of anger is feelings of injustice.  The anger drives
us to restore the balance.  It is clear that much political activity
arises out of the need to assuage anger arising from social injustice.

But worrying seems to be a bit different.  I worry when I cannot
reliably predict the outcome of a tentative course of action.  I
define worrying as "an emotional form of information processing
which fails to reduce the entropy or uncertainty of a knowledge
base, fails to generate solutions to outstanding problems, or fails
to conceice goal-achieving courses of action".

What anger and worry have in common is the presence of a problem
(an undesirable state of affairs) for which I do not have a ready
solution that I can apply with confidence.  That is, the presence
of emotion signals the absence of knowledge.  It tells me that I
cannot discover the solution within the scope of my present knowledge
base.  It tells me that I have to go to the outside world and seek
additional information, assistance, or skills.

--Barry Kort