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survival

 if you designed a robot 
and the robot had to survive against various threats
so you built into it's programming...
...circuits which promoted survival
how much would you let other circuits in the robot interfere 
with the survival programme?

you wouldn't allow any interference.
survival is paramount 
that is why humans have so little understanding of emotions 
a survival circuit is not to be tampered with
the rest of our mind is told "no go zone"
our culture, secular and religious, and our innate circuitry
tends to make us shy away from
considering emotions as a subject for thought

as robots we could have a logical sense of self
this would be simply the body and the computer like brain
but without a directive circuit
to motivate it,
to any thought word or action 
it would be paralyzed, catatonic, without even a thought 

​only having a circuit which activates, motivates,
which sets goals, aims, desires,
whether gross
as the baby's scream for milk
or subtle as the shy person's desire for confidence,
creates a self which places value in the self...
...that circuit or network 
is emotion
whether the emotion network is pharmacological or anatomical
or neurophysiological 
or a mixture 
in its nature
is irrelevant
it is the basement of existence
and the creator of self
self as described by sam harris, numerous others and much eastern philosophy...
the root of the human predicament in the sam harris view

it is not so much the self that is the problem
the problem is the emotion that powers the self
with all the problems of emotion
 
once our mind is given the flame of emotion 
it becomes separate from all else... 
 ...a citadel 
armed, imperious about the outside world
but also, vulnerable, subject to attack and insurrection 

there would be no possibility of a valued self without emotion

only in the last few decades has the western world
begun to wake up to the importance of emotions
possibly our survival will depend on this awakening

even so
if this happens it will be again a case of 
​dna ensuring its own survival
by allowing our cortex to understand emotion
 

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  • introduction
    • emotion : definition >
      • how the mind works
      • why live
      • why be happy
    • DNA >
      • survival
      • artificial intelligence
      • the self
      • reasons for living overlap
      • behind the reasons >
        • dna extended phenotype
        • overcome adversity
      • Meaning, which makes us content
    • who are you
    • DNA the architect of mind​
    • happiness fear and humour
  • the uselessness of mystery
  • invent happiness
    • unhappiness
    • positive emotions
    • negative emotions
    • mechanisms >
      • programmed
  • failures of emotions
    • the master
    • the gap
    • the other side of the gap
    • ignorance
    • binary versus analogue
    • blindness
    • challenges
    • escalation
    • power
    • mental illness is emotions out of control
    • drugs
    • crime
  • solutions
    • simple rules
    • diligence
    • focus
    • equanimity
    • awareness
    • intuitive
    • DNA vs you
  • humour
  • fear
  • depression
  • emotion meter
  • quiz
    • quiz answer
  • religion
  • questions for you
  • Emotions are autonomous
  • moods , feelings
  • the self and beneficial AI
  • you don't know what you are doing
  • emotions as weapons
  • stoicism
  • derivative thinking
  • taming the amygdala
  • criticism
  • philosophy
  • dna directives.
  • philosophers and emotions
  • philosophers
  • dna the designer...proof
  • response to emotions
  • science and emotion
  • social behaviour and emotions
  • emotions and politics
  • conatus
  • science
  • modern socioeconomic happiness
  • free will
  • introduction
  • dopamine and neurotransmitters
  • input process output