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One of the most interesting explanations of emotions that I've read is that emotions are subconscious predictions produced by the brain (sorry, didn't save the
by dgudkov 8y ago
One of the most interesting explanations of emotions that I've read is that emotions are subconscious predictions produced by the brain (sorry, didn't save the link). For instance, happiness is a subconscious prediction of safety. Depression is a subconscious prediction of death. It's like super-scalar execution -- the event hasn't happened yet (and may never happen), but the brain has already calculated its outcome and signals its estimation through emotions.
A few conclusions:
A) Anything with brains has some kind of emotions. The bigger the brain the more developed emotions are.
B) Emotions in animals has nothing to do with "soul" or anything transcendental. It's just a way the animal brain works. Humans can feel empathy to animal emotions because they are also technically animals.
- yarone 8y ago> emotions are subconscious predictions produced by the brain Thank you for sharing. Such an interesting thought.
- TaupeRanger 8y agoThis is one of those "non-explanations" you often get from modern neuroscience (in this case from the cult of "predictive coding"). There is absolutely no explanatory power here with regard to the nature of emotions. It just assumes its conclusion. The brain should just make its prediction and the behavior should happen in experiential void. Why is there any feeling associated with this prediction? There's no explanation for it that doesn't engage in obvious handwaving. And even if you accept one of the handwavy answers, it still doesn't even remotely approach the questions that people actually care about, like: why would the prediction give this specific quality of feeling, rather than some other?