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Are minds are not like computers because we humans have 'emotions.' Emotions affects the mind's performance and what memories are activated.

remon 13y ago
You're assuming emotions are some kind of magic that happens outside of your neurons and synapses. They don't. Provided we can accurately simulate neurons, synapses and how they interact in an accurate enough way such machines could have emotions. The challenge is obviously in achieving the above.
- teemo_cute 13y ago
  Quoting Candace Pert, author of 'Molecules of Emotions': "For decades, most people thought of the brain and its extension the central nervous system as an electrical communication system . . . resembling a telephone system with trillions of miles of intricately crisscrossing wires." But new research techniques for studying peptides and receptors show that only 2 percent of neuronal communications are electrical, across a synapse. In fact, she writes, "the brain is a bag of hormones." And those hormones affect not only the brain, but every aspect of body and mind; many memories are stored throughout the body, as changes in the structure of receptors at the cellular level. "The body," Pert concludes, "is the unconscious mind!" From: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/review-of-molecules-of-emotion-157256854 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/review-of-molecules-of... Emotions seem to occur outside the brain.
  - amirmc 13y ago
    > "Emotions seem to occur outside the brain." There isn't a clear scientific definition of what an emotion is, which makes discussion difficult. Having said that, they are not solely outside the brain. There are a number of views about human emotion and they do discuss the brain-body interaction (and feedback loops).
  - userbinator 13y ago
    > Emotions seem to occur outside the brain. But still within the body, and thus within this universe - in any case it's just a matter of definition of what the "brain" is, and we could just as well say the whole human is a brain, and emotions are just an effect of the "computation" that it performs. Whether this computation is electrical or chemical (hormones) doesn't change the fact that it's based on the same laws of interaction as everything else in the universe.

remon 13y ago

You're assuming emotions are some kind of magic that happens outside of your neurons and synapses. They don't. Provided we can accurately simulate neurons, synapses and how they interact in an accurate enough way such machines could have emotions. The challenge is obviously in achieving the above.

teemo_cute 13y ago
Quoting Candace Pert, author of 'Molecules of Emotions': "For decades, most people thought of the brain and its extension the central nervous system as an electrical communication system . . . resembling a telephone system with trillions of miles of intricately crisscrossing wires." But new research techniques for studying peptides and receptors show that only 2 percent of neuronal communications are electrical, across a synapse. In fact, she writes, "the brain is a bag of hormones." And those hormones affect not only the brain, but every aspect of body and mind; many memories are stored throughout the body, as changes in the structure of receptors at the cellular level. "The body," Pert concludes, "is the unconscious mind!" From: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/review-of-molecules-of-emotion-157256854 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/review-of-molecules-of... Emotions seem to occur outside the brain.
- amirmc 13y ago
  > "Emotions seem to occur outside the brain." There isn't a clear scientific definition of what an emotion is, which makes discussion difficult. Having said that, they are not solely outside the brain. There are a number of views about human emotion and they do discuss the brain-body interaction (and feedback loops).
- userbinator 13y ago
  > Emotions seem to occur outside the brain. But still within the body, and thus within this universe - in any case it's just a matter of definition of what the "brain" is, and we could just as well say the whole human is a brain, and emotions are just an effect of the "computation" that it performs. Whether this computation is electrical or chemical (hormones) doesn't change the fact that it's based on the same laws of interaction as everything else in the universe.