[Aleader-dev] Re: busy busy

[William L. Jarrold]

Quick reply.  I'm still not sure I entirely understand where you are
coming from.  Sometimes, I think I so radically disagree with you that it
will be impossible to resolve our differences...Lets see if we can sync
up via the following....

More later...I think determining precisely which emotion person will
feel next is a very very hard problem.  It is about as hard as calculating
precisely (i.e. within 1 millimeter) where and in what configuration
(within one degree) a leaf falling from a tree will land.  Emotion depends
on a cognitive process which all humans probably share to a substantial
extent.  But it also depends on their personality, their life history,
their body (the somatic influence on emotion is huge).  This probably
interacts via a chaotic (i.e. highly sensitive to initial conditions)
process.  For this reason I think trying to objectively predict what
someone is feeling is too hard to tackle now.

On the other hand, if you just settle for a piece of the system. E.g.
the cognitive piece, and allow yourself to predict a range of
likely to be felt emotions, or emotions that woudl be believable then you
might have a prayer of solving the problem.

Here's another idea....If you want to build a good theory, start with
a child's emotions.  Happy and sad might be a good place to start.

Bill