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Our emotions don't tell us shit. They are straight-up wrong, half the time. Our biological OS is not constructed for the current world. That is why, even when

Our emotions don't tell us shit. They are straight-up wrong, half the time. Our biological OS is not constructed for the current world. That is why, even when everything is going right, we have intermittent moments of anxiety and depression. This is chronic. The moment you ignore our biases, you fall into some deep shit. And you can never get out; you can't see your own biases.

ethbro 10y ago
If we didn't ignore the fact that we have biases, at least part of the time, wouldn't we be far less productive? I've seen people who reflect daily on whether their breakfast egg is cage free and what that means for us as an ethically omnivorous species and our corporate agribusiness food economy... and by the time they're done it's dinner. I have better things to do with my day than think logically about everything all the time.
- unabst 10y ago
  There is no need to ignore anything. Emotional bias is precisely why we have brains to balance them. If you can recognize you have bias you're all set. And lo and behold, next time you won't get as angry in the same situation, etc.
plurinshael 10y ago
No. The projection of an emotional object onto a logical construction has the capacity for being "wrong" or "right". Emotions are a different, more distributed form of logic and one should not construe homomorphisms across the two.
- unabst 10y ago
  This is correct.
- avindroth 10y ago
  There are too many inference distances for me to explain in a comment (and frankly lazy). Read the sequences on LessWrong! You might glean a thing or two.
unabst 10y ago
> even when everything is going right How do you know this if you're having "intermittent moments of anxiety and depression"? It's none of my business, but you sound troubled. Emotions being broken is a different issue, but the article was about "normal" people. Emotions are a physical reaction to your circumstances. You don't have to react to your emotions, but to second guess how you feel without second guessing your physical circumstances is the chronic modern illness that get's you into deep shit. > ignore our biases You don't ignore them. You adjust for them. "Oh, I didn't have to be angry. Sorry about that! I lost my cool for a second." That's what our brains are for.
- avindroth 10y ago
  Good point!

ethbro 10y ago

If we didn't ignore the fact that we have biases, at least part of the time, wouldn't we be far less productive? I've seen people who reflect daily on whether their breakfast egg is cage free and what that means for us as an ethically omnivorous species and our corporate agribusiness food economy... and by the time they're done it's dinner. I have better things to do with my day than think logically about everything all the time.

unabst 10y ago
There is no need to ignore anything. Emotional bias is precisely why we have brains to balance them. If you can recognize you have bias you're all set. And lo and behold, next time you won't get as angry in the same situation, etc.

plurinshael 10y ago

No. The projection of an emotional object onto a logical construction has the capacity for being "wrong" or "right". Emotions are a different, more distributed form of logic and one should not construe homomorphisms across the two.

unabst 10y ago
This is correct.
avindroth 10y ago
There are too many inference distances for me to explain in a comment (and frankly lazy). Read the sequences on LessWrong! You might glean a thing or two.

unabst 10y ago

> even when everything is going right How do you know this if you're having "intermittent moments of anxiety and depression"? It's none of my business, but you sound troubled. Emotions being broken is a different issue, but the article was about "normal" people. Emotions are a physical reaction to your circumstances. You don't have to react to your emotions, but to second guess how you feel without second guessing your physical circumstances is the chronic modern illness that get's you into deep shit. > ignore our biases You don't ignore them. You adjust for them. "Oh, I didn't have to be angry. Sorry about that! I lost my cool for a second." That's what our brains are for.

avindroth 10y ago
Good point!