Do You Think of Your Emotions as an Asset or a Liability?

[KoolHndLuke]

In other words.... would we humans be better off as purely logical beings?

 

Once in awhile I achieve a sort of 'disconnect' from my emotions and I must admit to this giving me a strong sense of peace, serenity. Caring one way or the other about anything just doesn't exist.

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by KoolHndLuke

[Evaloves4]

> I believe they would but their logic must be highly developed and without differences, like unique awareness.

[KoolHndLuke]

8 minutes ago, EvalovesEP said:

like unique awareness.

Think I understand what you mean. Like a higher awareness of everything or something? But pure calculations might lead to a conclusion that could spell our doom, lol.

 

 

 

[Evaloves4]

Just now, KoolHndLuke said:

Think I understand what you mean. Like a higher awareness of everything or something? But pure calculations might lead to a conclusion that could spell our doom, lol.

 

 

 

 

> You know why I like Matrix trilogy? If you watched the first movie you'll remember the scene when Agents caught Morpheus. I like what agent Smith told him when Neo was about to save him. Smith was telling the truth - no matter how perfect Matrix create world for human beings they always complain and are never satisfied. Emotions are unstable, especially among women. I'd like to live in the world where either emotions are perfected (who is competent to determined what s perfect) or to have no emotions.

 

> Have you seen "Equilibrium" movie? If you didn't, you should.

[landess]

Pure logic could be evolved from instinct. I believe emotion is a much more recent adaptation that is a balance to our increased intellect. But in an evolutionary sense - we are still taking baby steps.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by landess
Oldheimer's does affect spelling

[catchyorbit]

Humans developed emotions mostly for pair-bonding and socialisation.

 

Emotions lost a lot of relevance in the 21st century. They will be obsolete in the future because humans will be replaced by robots. If sentient robots existed today, they would have exterminated humans for being very inefficient and illogical. And humans are like that hugely due to emotions.

[KoolHndLuke]

2 hours ago, EvalovesEP said:

Emotions are unstable

 

Agree.

 

2 hours ago, landess said:

a balance to our increased intellect

 

Perhaps. But I fail to see how emotions benefit us that much. Chaotic and unpredictable most times. or predictable and easy to manipulate others.

 

1 hour ago, catchyorbit said:

Emotions lost a lot of relevance in the 21st century

 

More along the lines of what I'm thinking. An evolutionary biproduct that has outlived it's usefulness- if it ever really had one.

[legendarytoyou]

2 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

In other words.... would we humans be better off as purely logical beings?

 

Once in awhile I achieve a sort of 'disconnect' from my emotions and I must admit to this giving me a strong sense of peace, serenity. Caring one way or the other about anything just doesn't exist.

 

 

 

Logic in certain areas are a must of course.  Politics, warfare, business acumen, technology and engineering.  Raw emotional states mean nothing but disaster for things requiring asymmetrical logistics like the areas named above.  You need only look at the far left as a prime example of that.

 

However certain emotional states I consider should be MANDATORY for fields such as medicine, psychology, healing and fine arts.  The Hippocratic Oath for example was designed SPECIFICALLY with compassion in mind; its a pledge to help people who are suffering from illness.  That includes psychology because mental illness still falls under that same jurisdiction.  The Fine Arts (authors, poetry, science fiction, painting, sculpture etc.) are another field that are dependent on such emotions.  We would never have the works of Tennison, JR Tolkien, Jack Williamson, JK Rowling or the countless other novelists of this worlds age if they weren't basing their ideals on emotional inspiration.

 

Logic creates science and reality.  Emotions create what the human race is in mind and spirit.

[KoolHndLuke]

20 minutes ago, legendarytoyou said:

The Hippocratic Oath for example was designed SPECIFICALLY with compassion in mind; its a pledge to help people who are suffering from illness.  That includes psychology because mental illness still falls under that same jurisdiction

 Would there be a need for compassion if the health care system was set up as logically and efficiently as possible? No. And more so without the distractions that emotions inevitably present. I would much rather entrust my continued health to that than the alternative where you might get a compassionate staff that goes out of their way to help you on Tuesdays and Thursdays provided they're having good days, lol.

 

And artistic expression would not exist in a purely logical society because there would be no need. With your emotions gone, you wouldn't even understand what it was all about. 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by KoolHndLuke

[legendarytoyou]

1 hour ago, KoolHndLuke said:

And artistic expression would not exist in a purely logical society because there would be no need. With your emotions gone, you wouldn't even understand what it was all about. 

 

 

 

Yes but would also result in a world about as inspiring as watching fungus grow.  You remember the movie, "Equilibrium," where everyone was required by law to inject themselves with a serum that would inhibit their emotional state?  Remember how cold, lifeless, authoritarian, tyrannical, manipulative and just plain inhuman the authorities were?  "Sense offenders," were usually put to death by either Grammaton Clerics (which you hoped for) or if captured literally incinerated ALIVE, which is considered one of the most horrible ways to die other than being eaten alive.  NO remorse for their actions, the authorities in that universe incinerated anyone guilty of being a, "sense offender," indiscriminately; men, women and children.  Even pets were put to death and dismissed as a, "fluke," or unnecessary.  Remember; remorse is similar to compassion, which is forbidden in their idealism.

 

To be honest if we lived in a world that was similar I'm sorry; I would cap myself in the face with my own gun than live in such a hellhole.  Emotions are what separates us from machines.  It makes us realize there are moral implications of selflessness, compassion and honor.  Authoritarian societies are notorious for being unfeeling, heartless and genocidal whose body count numbers in the millions, its called communism.  It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees.

Edited August 24, 2021 by legendarytoyou

[landess]

3 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Would there be a need for compassion if the health care system was set up as logically and efficiently as possible?

 

Logic would dictate that if you 'fall behind - you're left behind'. Either you make stupid decisions that cause yourself or others harm and become a burden on the rest of 'humanity' -OR- You have genetic defects, no matter how small and need to be removed from the gene pool. There would be very little 'health care' and that would only be used in special circumstances like birth supervision, or individuals whom have proven themselves to be beneficial to the rest of the population for example. Also there would be no pain alleviation since no one would care if you 'hurt' while having surgery.

 

> I could go on, but it's a dark vision.

[landess]

3 hours ago, legendarytoyou said:

or if captured literally incinerated ALIVE

 

Sounds inefficient and smacks of fear tactics which given the circumstances is an oxymoron.

[Darkpig]

Think? I know people can't exist without emotions.

 

If people didn't have emotions the need to exist would cease to be. Love is what causes a species to continue for thousands of years. Anger is what the modern justice system is built on. Fear is why people develop plans for when disaster strikes. The only reason errors happen is because our brains screw up either because of a lack of information or because the hardware we call a brain fails us.

[Tlam99]

My personal view on emotions.

 

Logical thinking, lateral thinking, straight without bends.

One can never deviate, see left and right the spur. One is catched in a two dimensional walk.

Emotions makes one able to deviate, explore new fields, see all the world, have revolutionary ideas.

Emotion is the world of colors, art, love and hate. A world making lifing a real lifing.

It's the complementary part of thinking. Without it, one is crippled, not able to have fun but only work.

It is a good thing to be able to control them, but even if you can do so, it's not a good idea to control them always.

Emotions can be.....soooo exciting.

BTW, it's also part of animals.

[Tlam99]

Well, something happened to my avatar after posting my view on emotions.

Made him a sub-king

Fits well to my sub-culture sub-surface lifing.

Hopefully it makes him not to submissive, as this would in a sublime way subordinate my sub-mind

which would be sub-optimal for my sub-being here  and distord MY real being.

Now submit the reply, lol. 

I love emotions, without them I could not love them....hmmmm, have to think about this.

Edited August 27, 2021 by T-lam

[27X]

Emotions were evolved to reinforce and enhance interactions amongst humans on a tribal level. Tribal means about 450 people max in terms of personal interaction and about 5K in terms of an interactive sphere. 7+ billion humans leads to the utter clusterfuck of a broken tribal society we're currently enjoying.

 

Would humans benefit NOW from not having emotions? Absolutely. But far less on an individual level.

[Tlam99]

8 minutes ago, 27X said:

benefit NOW from

Accept your opinion but completely disagree to it.

As it degrades the human being to ants and denies the individuum.

What means the vague benefit.

More wealth ? More advance in research ?

Who decides what is benefit ? 

This would lead to a world without the human being but ants.

 

[Inempha]

What I find fun here is that most of the answers who says « Emotions are needed » say it based on their feelings or emotions. Even morality is (mostly) based on emotions. But if no-one would have emotions, they wouldn't care life to be boring and they wouldn't either care for their decisions being immoral, because they wouldn't have morality. As for morality which are not emotional, they would be preserved, not as « moral » but as obvious. In facts, emotional being we are, we are misplaced to approve a life without it, it is our emotions that are afraid or disgusted of that possible life.

 

On a personal basis, I tried myself to eliminate my own emotions, which I perceived as a burden. In fact, I thought, it is because I accept being happy I am sad, accepting one is accepting the other. And I wanted to not be sad anymore. I partially managed to do so. If emotions are rollercoaster, mine are really flat ones, and people around me let me know they don't like it. But I find myself unable to not have anymore emotions. However, it is more than sufficient to never feel concerned by anything. I mean, I find myself unable to take any low-consequence decision, I feel the effort of taking such a decision is greater than the benefit of the decision itself. There are only three things for which I may find interest : Curiosity, pursuing an objective I set when I had more emotions, and make time pass. And, now, I miss the time when I had those emotions. I am totally disconnected from humans (as a human could feel for a machine, I presume), I want to know what I didn't experiment when I had emotions (at least some of them), and I feel more resilient against bad emotions than when I wanted to have no more emotions. But it is a work at least as difficult to recover emotions that it was to lose them.

 

Would the society be better without emotions? Maybe. But as long as we will have curiosity and there be at least one being with emotions, or evidence it once existend, we will want to know what emotions are. And if we were to lose curiosity, I don't think we would find any interest being alive (or whatever life we would still have). Robots and machine cannot think by themselves, they exist simply to do what we ask them to do. If a pure logical being was to lose curiosity, I think they would simply stop and waiting until they would no longer be.

 

And I wonder if human could really lose any emotions... I'm not convinced emotions are anything more than evolved feelings and sensations as are vision or hearing.

[Tlam99]

22 minutes ago, Inempha said:

What I find fun here is that most of the answers who says « Emotions are needed » say it based on their feelings or emotions

Lol

You start arguing,  others answers are based on emotions....STARTING yourself with an emotion, FUN ?

This is really funny

 

[Guest]

It all depends if you allow your emotions to have control over your logic. Emotions can be good if it's balanced. But if you allow your emotions to take control over your logic, you will quickly find yourself constantly being used by those who like to prey on the naive. Been there long ago.

[Myst42]

Black and white perspectives are always wrong. Which is a pretty ironic thing to say, but it's true.

But basically, if you want harmony, you choose balance, if you want chaos, you choose one color over the other.

 

A human that's nothing but emotion is an irrational, impulsive being. That always leads to stupid and destructive behavior.

A human that's nothing but logic lacks the capacity for emapthy, attachment or caring, which is basically a psychopath.

 

A machine could make the most logical solution that to solve the problems of world hunger, poverty and climate fuckery, it is needed to exterminate 70% of the current global population, and it makes perfect fucking sense.

 

So the answer is neither, and also both.

Balance is the answer, not choice.

There is a time to use emotion and there is a time to use logic. That's called adaptation. That's how life surives.

 

Also I see talk of "inner peace" without emotion, but I dont think that's "not having emotions" it's just what some currents call "detachment" and theysee it as a good thing because it's not about negating emotions, it's about not letting them take control. Such detachment starts from letting go of Ego. IE "I'm mad because someone told me some nasty thing, and that hurts me" -> remove ego, and the anger goes away. Not exactly the same as being an ice cold machine, but more like a state of peace.

Edited August 28, 2021 by Myst42

[Inempha]

37 minutes ago, T-lam said:

You start arguing,  others answers are based on emotions....STARTING yourself with an emotion, FUN

 

You're right, it's ironic. But while having very few emotions, I was forced to develop language to make myself understood by other humans. If you prefer, « fun » was here a summary for « special and showing that they only see one side of the medal, making them unable to make a worthy choice ». I don't want to offend anyone, but wanting to take a decision while seeing only one facet is not taking a decision, it is thinking there is no choice because there is only one.

 

14 minutes ago, Myst42 said:

Black and white perspectives are always wrong. Which is a pretty ironic thing to say, but it's true.

But basically, if you want harmony, you choose balance, if you want chaos, you choose one color over the other.

 

Most of the time, I would agree, but in this matter, the balance is not between different chaos, but between order and chaos. A world without emotion is not a chaotic one (Or, yes, it is, but not because there is only logic), it is an ordered, aka lifeless, one.

But I agree with the rest of your post, and I find now I was a fool not seeing this before (before trying to lose my emotions)

Edited August 28, 2021 by Inempha

[GooeyGreenGorgonopsid]

edge

[KoolHndLuke]

On 8/24/2021 at 7:54 PM, landess said:

Also there would be no pain alleviation since no one would care if you 'hurt' while having surgery.

 

Some pain relief would have to be administered. Otherwise the patient would go crazy from it. Pain or pleasure (thankfully, lol) are not emotions. They're a form of sensory input like your eyes or ears. We only attach emotions to them.

 

 

On 8/26/2021 at 10:41 PM, Darkpig said:

The only reason errors happen is because our brains screw up either because of a lack of information or because the hardware we call a brain fails us.

 

Jealousy, greed, fear, anger- I'd say just the opposite is true and emotions cause errors more than any flaw in logic. Detached from those emotions, your brain is free to function without their influence leading to faulty conclusions.

 

5 hours ago, Doctor Cadaver said:

 

 

Yet as we move into the future we rely more and more on 'machines' to do our thinking for us. And considering advancements in technology, soon a.i. will surpass us quite readily. We, and our emotions, will effectively be obsolete.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2021 by KoolHndLuke

[Darkpig]

1 minute ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Jealousy, greed, fear, anger- I'd say just the opposite is true and emotions cause errors more than any flaw in logic. Detached from those emotions, your brain is free to function without their influence leading to faulty conclusions.

Emotions are a reflex. Without a fear of failure humans would not know success.