Peralin said:
Maybe emotion is just a process of the brain. Maybe the setup of the brain determines whether we feel happy or sad.
Art and beauty?? Mybe they are simply genetic. Maybe all we are is genes and brain. It would suck, but it might be that way.
Of course, there is another option. Maybe there is a part of out brain that is us. Maybe there is a part of our decision-making that involves something else besides the brain. I don't know, I haven't heard of any evidence of such a thing. But I guess it's possible.
Certain processes are ingrained, maternal instinct, the fear of snakes.
If the origin of our emotions is not in the brain where is it?
Why must us humans view the "mind" and seperate from the "brain"? "You think with your heart instead of your head," when the head is the place emotions begin, physically originate. Shouldn't Prozac and the other frontal brain medications so prevelant today in medicine tell us this?
If Art and Beauty are genetic, they are part of our evolution as a species.
The classic tale of "A Christmas Carol" shows us this decision making model on something not based in only "brain." What course to survival is most prudent? To hoard? To earn only for oneself and forget the others? Seems a wise decision to survive.
Yet to make a decision to give to another, maybe making him stronger than yourself, and to decide to do it anyway. Not directly for a benifit to self, although there is one. For the benifit of another over yourself. Survival is selfish, to decide and act in a way counter to that is not pure instinct.
This thought overcomes the lower animal, to kill, eat, fight, reproduce, all to live mentality. A computer would seek out the best way to live based on a drive to survive, no remorse.
No emotion, which causes humans to go against the nature of the cycle we see, and these actions do indeed define "humanity."
KMS