[from Mary Powers (961015)]
Well, here I go with both feet (in my mouth?)
On emotion (Bruce A.):
Is the notion of a General Adaptation Syndrome totally obsolete
these days? I like it better than, say, a fear system, or an
anger system - or an exilaration system. The physical
mobilization, driven by hormonal rather than neuronal signals,
is, if I'm not mistaken, pretty much the same in each case. I
think that a newborn, experiencing error, whether from hunger or
pain or any other distress, is pretty undifferentiated as to what
kind of error it is. As she develops her control systems,
reorganizing every few weeks according to the Plooij's, THEN
specific interpretations of emotional states become associated
with particular kinds of experiences. But on into adult life,
however the emotional states are characterized by the HPCT
system, they are physically very much the same.
I mention exhilaration because lots of people like to get their
physical systems churning now and then and go out of their way to
do it, up Fourteeners or down the rivers here in Colorado, or out
to the amusement park roller coaster. Then they call what's
going on fun, rather than anger or fear or threat or what have
you. It's also why having gone to war is such a crowning event
in many lives.
On smiling: Smiling on request is producing the perception that
one is smiling (in order to oblige someone one feels like
obliging, like the high school yearbook photographer). Smiling
because one feels good is one of those physiological things one
does while feeling emotional, like dilating pupils or raising the
hair on one's arms. It doesn't surprise me that different
muscles are involved. It would be interesting to know whether
the muscles involved in the involuntary smile are the same as in
grimaces of fear or anger.
* *
Bill Benzon on Rick's "verbal formulae":
Did it occur to you that language has been developed by people
who never heard of control theory? The PCT "verbal style" is
often necessary in order to get around the customary usage which
implies a) external causation and b) the production of specific
behaviors.
More from BB:
So tell me about the levels where references are set for
search, pursuit, consume [etc.]
Since search, pursuit, consume is a sequence, or a sequence of
sequences, there damn well better be a higher level to get them
in the right order. I think we usually call that higher level
the program or strategy level.
If you present a really hungry dog with a bitch in heat and a
bowl of food, I'm sure the dog will be happy to show you how he
orders his priorities. I leave it to the less technically
challenged to talk to you about loop gain.
Mary P.