Just yesterday, I had another chance to promote the book "Incognito" by David Eagleman. I have been holding it out as my current #1 recommended book. Eagleman did a fine job showing me my mind as a passenger on a giant ship, thinking it itself was doing a fine job steering that giant vessel of me while ignoring the captain, the many guys on the crew, the enormous engine, the fuel bins, etc.etc. My mind likes to think it is in charge. If challenged, it tries to demonstrate its control with the voluntary lifting of an arm or leg. The conscious mind tends to ignore blood pressure and breathing and hormones and digestion and just about everything needed to keep me humming along as this fabulous living beast.
Even the vaunted ability to speak and write comes from below deck. Yes, I make modifications on the spot. I was about to say that I hate that dress you are wearing but I predicted that comment would hurt too much, so I consciously edited and said,"I don't know about that dress". But the impulse to modulate and the reframed utterance were not carefully thought out beforehand. I just gave myself some sort of inner nudge and the editing is done instantly. I also notice that the intricate use of lips and tongue and the nice masculine tone of voice all come out as desired without planning or rehearsal or makeup.
Over the centuries, many people have differentiated between our ability to think and our tendency to feel emotions. I suspect that nature and evolution would not have developed emotions in us and kept them going over geological epochs if they weren't of great value. So, do designers of robots and artificial minds look to developing emotions in their wares, too? Yes. Not all, but the idea has many followers. You can Google (or Duckduckgo or Bing) "emotions for robots" and "emotional robots" and see projects and sources working on ideas.
I wrote my dissertation more than years ago. It is centered on decision-making. One of the most helpful and stimulating sources I found was the work of Kahneman and Tversky. That same Kahneman, now a Noble prize winner, wrote "Thinking: Fast and Slow". It is a currently popular survey of views and insights into our thinking. My friend, Dr. Larry Riggs, nailed the fast and slow bit long ago. He gave the example of walking through the woods and accidently stepping on a long branch. The step makes the other end of the branch rustle some leaves. Bingo! Fast as lightning, fear rushes through me - the fast, emotional part. Then the slow part kicks in and I think through what happened more slowly, realizing that it is a branch and leaves, not a snake or other danger.
How can I accept the limits of my conscious thinking? I don't know. I seem to do well when I question myself, when I write notes of ideas, and queries I want to ponder. Two or three notes accumulate into an interest and I Duckduckgo it and see what others have to say. I Amazon it and buy a book on it or check out the local library. I more or less automatically gain more awareness and respect for my emotions.
