META: Emotions "vestigial"? was Re: On being Extropian ( was Eag

Michael Butler (mbutler@ocv1.ocv.com)
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 13:13:31 PST


Chris said:
All this points to EQ I suppose. Emotion is mere entertainment from my
viewpoint. Emotion comes from the ancient reptilian brain deep within your
cranium where logic is fresh and new and one of the higher forms of thought
to help us rationalize and use tools. Why deny the fact that emotion is
vistigial (sp?) and only for mere entertainment now that we have logic?

I say:
Do you always buy Release 1.0, too? :) It's new, it *must* be better!

Emotion may be considered primitive; HOWEVER, I don't find it
"vestigial" in the slightest.

I'd argue that all "motivation", the kind that actually gets you out
of bed in the morning, bent on doing something other than
elimination or(perhaps) eating, is emotional/chemical at root.

Gedanken time: Eliminate dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine and
norepinephrine from my system, them take out all the endocrine
substances that are not currently known to act as neurotransmitters
--I doubt that I'd feel like doing anything at all, even think.

Logic is *useful*--SOMETIMES. Emotions are *fun*--SOMETIMES.
Are emotions ever useful? Is logic ever fun? Hmm--I'd say yes. Hmmmm.

To say that logic is a completely satisfactory substitute for emotion is
akin to saying that molybdenum grease is a completely satisfactory
substitute for ice cream. They have similar viscosity, right?

MMB, at but not for OCV