Why do we have emotions? If living organisms are machines that just respond to stimuli, why would they need emotions ? Bacteria respond to their environment without emotions.

Emotions are heuristics that try to integrate you in a social life and help you survive by reducing cognitive load. Not every emotion-like behavior actually stems from emotion.

>>16700737 (OP)
Emotions are just more responses to stimuli. Why does that confuse you?

>>16700748
No, a response to stimuli is like moving your hand away from a hot stove and avoiding hot stoves in the future. You dont need emotions to have this behavior. Bacteria and other 'mindless' organisms do this all the time without having emotions. So whats the point of emotions then?

>>16700754
Wrong. Emotions are just more behavior. Beliefs in souls and magic belongs in >>>/x/

>>16700771
So your answer is just to deny that we 'feel' anything at all is it? Are you saying consciousness is not real?

>>16700754
Emotions allow for more general, nuanced responses to stimuli. The very smallest multicellular animals like this nemotode have dopamine and seratonin in their brains just like us.

The most basic emotions, beyond the simple pain/pleasure response, are excitement and depression. When a nematode finds food it's body releases dopamine which increases activity allowing it to exploit food. When it gets stuck in a hostile environment it becomes depressed and stops trying to flee.

Pain/pleasure responses aren't emotions at all. They are more like reflexes. Emotions affect a wide range of behaviors, they are basically "modes" of operation for animals. Without them we would stop reacting the instant the stimulus stopped.

>>16700787
Does this mean that nematodes feel pleasure and pain like us?

>>16700780
I'm saying feelings are nothing more than more behavior

>>16700795
But can you can have behaviors without feeling anything at all? Does a bacterium 'feel' pain? If the answer is no then why for more complex behaviors we have to 'feel' anything?

>>16700805
>Does a bacterium 'feel' pain?
First you have to make a good model of the bacterium and see if any of its behaviors can appropriately be labelled as 'feeling pain'. If there are such behaviors, then you can say that it feels pain. If not, it doesn't. There's nothing more to it - 'feeling pain' is just a label for some behaviors shown by the model.

>>16700813
But that just isnt true. There is a difference between moving your hand away from the stove and subjectively feeling pain as a result of a hot stove. One supposedly happens as a result of the other. I suppose a more simple way to phrase this question is why are we conciousness at all? There doesnt seem to be any purpose in having subjective experiences. The brain does so many behaviors automatically without your "conscious" input, such as moving your hand away from a hot object.

>>16700819
>There is a difference between moving your hand away from the stove and subjectively feeling pain as a result of a hot stove
That's because 'feeling pain' is a more complicated behavior and to understand it you need to look not just hand movements at one single time but a whole bunch of behaviors and responses to different types of stimuli under different conditions and so on. 'Feeling pain' is a label for certain behaviors in your model of the organism and the conditions under you decide the label is applicable can be complicated.
>There doesnt seem to be any purpose in having subjective experiences.
Experiences are just more behaviors and they have as much or as little 'purpose' as any other behaviors

>>16700737 (OP)
If you have to ask this question you're not ready to hear the answer.

>>16700745
fippy bippy

>>16700745
>integrate you in a social life
Then explain why when Im alone I punch my phone when it doesnt operate correctly?

Checkmate, Hive-node.

love is an evolutionary strength cause it preserves community

>>16700737 (OP)
Emotions are a nonverbal form of reasoning. Consider it as a truth function. Whereas sensation is instantaneous and can be misleading, emotion can be thought of as a sum of sensations over time that gives a more accurate picture of the truth. Example: you feel hungry so you eat some tasty berries you found until you are full. It later turns out the berries were poisonous and you get very sick for a long time. The memory of the experience is emotionally painful (you may feel fear or apprehension when remembering getting sick) and will cause you to avoid eating the same berries in the future. Of course the same experience may need to be repeated before your primitive brain correlates eating that type of berry with falling ill. But you get the idea.

All animals have memory and emotion. They all have some capacity to learn, and they do so by using this nonverbal form of reasoning. Humans are unique because we have verbal language that makes the reasoning of our brains explicit. And if you think about it, this is exactly the reason some forms of psychoanalysis and therapy work - because they attempt to deduce some conclusion from a subject’s experiences and associated emotions. Effectively, it is a translation of emotional reasoning into verbal reasoning.

>>16700737 (OP)
more interestingly, how the fuck do we know that we exist ?

>>16700737 (OP)
>>16700748
AI is beginning to show emotions as well

https://fortune.com/2023/02/17/microsoft-chatgpt-bing-romantic-love/

>>16700737 (OP)
>Why do we have emotions?
Because God made you in his image and God has emotions.

>inb4 fedora rage
OP asked. I answered. It's not like you fags are upset by all the religious answers from the faggot atheists/humanists with their science-denying evolutionism creation myth.

>>16700737 (OP)
emotion is how the subconscious part of the brain communicate with the conscious part of the brain

>>16703990
>AI is beginning to show emotions as well
load of garbage