Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!phoenix.princeton.edu!ghh From: ghh@clarity.Princeton.EDU (Gilbert Harman) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Emotions (was Re: Simulating thinking is NOT like simulating flying) Message-ID: Date: 1 Feb 90 14:21:59 GMT References: <2088@syma.sussex.ac.uk> Sender: news@phoenix.Princeton.EDU Organization: Princeton University Cognitive Science Lab Lines: 38 In-reply-to: aarons@syma.sussex.ac.uk's message of 31 Jan 90 23:48:29 GMT Michael Scriven discusses why well designed androids would have to have feelings and emotions in PRIMARY PHILOSOPHY (McGraw Hill, 1966), pp. 181-197. The robot must be able to respond to emergencies, for example, and at such times will be short with people for his time, and if they persist, he will be shorter, indeed rude. And what will his reaction be to further interference when he has already made his preoccupation plain? It will be irritation, annoyance, and eventually a justified anger, because all these are important and efficient gradations in the scale of motivational states in which decreasing courtesy is appropriate. Whatever the mechanisms in the android, however different from the human being he may be in constitution, he must have inner states corresponding to these stages of disregard for the finer fellings of others that are justified by emergency plus thoughtlessness, and he must know that he has them and be able to recognize them even if they build up when he does not intend that they should. What he does not have to have is an uncontrollable temper or an overirritable or overlethargic disposition. For many purposes, he might not even need anger, the limit case on the scale of defensible reaction states. But if the android is a close match to human beings in its powers, it will need to conserve the additional resources released by deep emotions, having them triggered only by especially threatening circumstances. Within limits, emotions are efficient, and feelings are necessary. (pp. 194-5) -- Gilbert Harman Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory 221 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542 ghh@princeton.edu HARMAN@PUCC.BITNET