Can our emotions be logical?

[The Persnickety Platypus]

I really don’t have time for debating right now, but I simply could not leave this topic alone, so I am going to throw it out there for the rest of you.

I was watching “I, Robot” the other day, and it got me thinking. For those of you who do not know, here are Asimov’s “three laws of robotics”, which are programmed into all robots for human safety:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.


In the movie, Will Smith experiences a scenario in which he and a little girl are both in life threatening danger. A robot, programmed with the “three laws”, comes to his aid, and ignores his plea to “save the girl instead” by surmising that Will had a 45% chance for survival, and the girl only an 11% chance. However, the robot, only programmed to think logically, did not take into account the value of each separate human life. Smith argues that an emotional human would know that 11% is “enough of a chance”.


Closer to the central plot of the story, “VIKI”, presumably the most advanced robot, figures out that to best enforce the 1st law, the robots must forsake the second law dictating that all robots obey humans, concluding that human free will results in war, crime, and genocide, and that a world safest for humans is one in which we have no freedom. “Sonny”, the only robot ever created with an emotional capacity, understood the the logic behind the revolt, but is the only robot to resist it, because he understands that the chief joy in being sentient is in the ability to think, act, and dream beyond the constraints of programmed laws or instinct (in other words, freedom>security).


Did the robot programmed to experience both logic AND emotion end up acting more logically than those robots only instilled with a capacity of straight, mathematical logic? Can our emotions be a reliable source of logic?

[Fisherking]

Seems to me that logic leads to emotion. Emotion is the byproduct of thought. Thought must come before emotion.

I wish that were the case. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting without thinking though. Think about the word mad - ness.

[Greatest I Am]

Seems to me that logic leads to emotion. Emotion is the byproduct of thought. Thought must come before emotion.

I wish that were the case. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting without thinking though. Think about the word mad - ness.

In humans, muscles are governed by the brain. Thoughts are what tells the brain what the response of the muscles will be. These muscles then do whatever action the brain dictates. There is always thinking even before the insane act. We have just had a good example of this at a school in the US. 31 Dead.

His illogical thinking let him do the deed.

Acting without thinking things through as you suggest is only appearance of instant action. The deed, whatever it is has already been thought up and a decision on action had been decided upon beforehand. Hate needs time to mature and grow, the same as love does as it's counterpart.

Regards
DL

[QED]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman

[Fisherking]

Seems to me that logic leads to emotion. Emotion is the byproduct of thought. Thought must come before emotion.

I wish that were the case. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting without thinking though. Think about the word mad - ness.

In humans, muscles are governed by the brain. Thoughts are what tells the brain what the response of the muscles will be. These muscles then do whatever action the brain dictates. There is always thinking even before the insane act. We have just had a good example of this at a school in the US. 31 Dead.

His illogical thinking let him do the deed.

Acting without thinking things through as you suggest is only appearance of instant action. The deed, whatever it is has already been thought up and a decision on action had been decided upon beforehand. Hate needs time to mature and grow, the same as love does as it's counterpart.

Ahh, let me rephrase. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting illogically.

[Cathar1950]

There is nothing inherently wrong with the non-rational such as feelings.
Things should be felt before we think about them. It is the irrational that should be questioned.

[Greatest I Am]

Seems to me that logic leads to emotion. Emotion is the byproduct of thought. Thought must come before emotion.

I wish that were the case. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting without thinking though. Think about the word mad - ness.

In humans, muscles are governed by the brain. Thoughts are what tells the brain what the response of the muscles will be. These muscles then do whatever action the brain dictates. There is always thinking even before the insane act. We have just had a good example of this at a school in the US. 31 Dead.

His illogical thinking let him do the deed.

Acting without thinking things through as you suggest is only appearance of instant action. The deed, whatever it is has already been thought up and a decision on action had been decided upon beforehand. Hate needs time to mature and grow, the same as love does as it's counterpart.

Ahh, let me rephrase. Emotional outburst of rage would be a good example of acting illogically.

I understand. The trigger for the outburst must be a thought that resides in the brain and is accessed by a logic trail.
The root of the discriminatory action is what we need to see in order of knowing what caused the outburst.
The root is what is causing this otherwise logical trail to skew. If we remove the reason for the discriminatory action, then we are back to logical thinking.

Regards
DL

[Greatest I Am]

There is nothing inherently wrong with the non-rational such as feelings.

GIA wrote
Feelings are based on complex systems, but generally they are based on logical principals.

Please show a short scenario of a non logical emotion or feeling.

Things should be felt before we think about them.

GIA wrote
Feel the stove before thinking about it . Huh.

It is the irrational that should be questioned.

Correct on this last.

Regards
DL