Emotion is a cognitive short-cut from awareness to initiative. If
we humans never felt emotions, we would hesitate CATASTROPHICALLY
in our dealing with situations where a rapid response of ANY sort
is more important than calm, cool analysis at a time of DO OR DIE:
<PRE>
Hearing Vision Concepts Volition Emotion Motor Output
/iiiiiii\ /!i!i!i!\ /YYYYYYYYYYYY\
| ||||||| || ||||||| | T | |||||||||||| |
| ||||||| || | ___ | | + | |||||||||||| |
| ||||||| || / \ | + | |S|||||||||| |
| ||||||| || (image)-|---+_ | |H|||||||||| |
| ||||||| || \___/ | / \ | |A|||||||||| |
| ||||||| || | (idea) __ | |K|||||||||| |
| || |||| || | \__/---------------/ \ | |E|||R|||F|| |
| ||d-----||---------|---+ ____ (fear)-|--*|||U|||I|| |
| |||e||| || | +-------/ \----\__/ | |||||N|||G|| |
| |a||||| || | + / de- \---------|------*|||H|| |
| |||||t| || | + ( ci- ) | |||||||||T|| |
| ||||h|| || | + \ sion /---------|----------*|| |
| ||||||| || | + \____/ | |||||||||||| |
</PRE>
In the source code of Mind.forth AI for robots to be found at URL
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/aisource.html (in Seattle WA) and at
http://victoria.tc.ca/~uj797/aisource.html (Victoria BC), EMOTION
as a potential subroutine (left to robot-makers; not implemented)
comes first in the Main Program Loop of the Mind program in order
that any event in the EMOTION phase may influence the VOLITION or
free will of the robot.... Hmm, something seems to be wrong with
the MIND sequence: EMOTION... VOLITION... THINK.... SENSORIUM.
Let's change it so that first we feel EMOTION, then we THINK about
how we feel, leading to an act of VOLITION, then we open SENSORIUM.
Yes, this discussion definitely has had an effect upon Mind.forth.
