Suppose a device exists that has the ability to, with one flip of switch, immediately disable all of the centers of your brain that deal with emotions, while simultaneously enhancing all of the centers of your brain that deal with logic and reasoning. So, with one flip of the switch, all human emotions–sadness, happiness, fear, anxiety, worry, love, etc.–are disabled in your brain, and you become a pure creature of logic, essentially, a human Vulcan.
Suppose further that the effects of the device are 100% reversible, with a flip of the switch back to the original position. Finally, suppose that you flip the switch to “ON,” and become this pure creature of logic.
Would you ever turn it off? In other words, would the purely “logical you” ever conclude that it would be logical to become an emotional person again?
I wish I had that switch for myself oftentimes. But whenever I start wishing I could just flip that switch, I think that it might be a one-way street. Emotions are pleasant experiences sometimes–that’s why they’re emotions. But they can also do a lot of damage when they come out in the wrong setting.
If I switched it on, I’d become useless. Logic can tell you how to accomplish a goal, but it can’t tell you what that goal should be. You need emotion to set goals; to live.
Given that a number of left-brained people have little use for right-brained functions I would imagine quite a few would prefer not to be bothered with those unscientific and problematic gifts. But we are feeling, as well as thinking, persons for a reason - to provide us information about our environment and the people we encounter.
Some of that information is delivered in subtle forms and takes practice and skill to process but I think people who utilize both the logical and the intuitive aspects of their makeup are likely to be more vibrant, connected and better informed than those who stifle a part of their being.
Considering that I prefer to keep my actions in line with my values I can’t imagine ever wanting to make decisions with pure logic. While I value sensible problem-solving there is always that elusive human factor to bring into the equation.
If everyone was switched off from their feelings then it wouldn’t be necessary to consider humanity in my choices. But then we’d all scarcely be human, would we? Efficient automatons.
Besides we’d have to live in a world without imagination. Bye-bye haunted houses. How much fun would that be at Halloween?
As with a lot of innovations, I wouldn’t want to be the first person to try it out. Let me see how it affects other people, and whether they generally stay in LogicLand or decide flip the switch.
If that violates the spirit of the question, then my answer/guess is that once you dump the doubts you won’t want them back.
You won’t be human and society won’t function but you won’t mind.
Yes, I have to agree with this. While logic could help me achieve goals, it would be poor at determining what those goals should be. What would my logical self value? Fame? Little use for it, logically speaking. Wealth? But the pleasures wealth gives aren’t things to enjoy via logic. Reproduction? Well, I suppose it makes the most logical sense to seek to spread my DNA, from a purely biological perspective.
So would my logical self spend all day whacking off at a sperm bank? Well…yeah, okay, I can see that.
A logical analysis of the situation would come to the immediate conclusion that the logic only switch should be turned off (seriously, our emotions exist for a reason - survival, including desire to live).
The only question is whether you could turn it off quickly enough, prior to ceasing all energy consumption because you correctly concluded that there is no point to living.
There is nothing inherently logical (or “good”) about spreading DNA. Even if we assumed that you could logically conclude that the continued existence of the species was logical (which it isn’t), then you would logically conclude that the top 1% or 2% (or some number) of today’s 6 billion people would be the best choice for continued sustained species existence in balance with planetary resources while maintaining enough variability, and the chance that you are in the top are reasonably low.
If you believe in evolution, emotion is likely one if its products. In that sense, it probably aids our reproductive success in some way and isn’t necessarily illogical to begin with – just not completely understood.
And logic doesn’t have to mean “without goals”; somebody or something else can provide those goals. Values too. Computers function fine with third-party goals. True, this would make us slaves of our programmers, but it’s possible we already are that – just less obviously. Heck, emotions could be those very goals, genetically programmed to aid our reproduction.
Anyway. I’d be first in line – especially if I could have a say in what my programmed goals would be. I’d love to be able to spend the rest of my life tirelessly working towards something other than breeding.
In an attempt to save this, I guess there is an argument that physical feeling of pleasure can be independent of emotions, so you can get back in line at the bank, sorry for the interruption.
Can you have “want” without emotions? I guess cells replicate without “want”, but for humans it seems like emotions are intimately tied into the process.
But, maybe not, maybe if the emotions were gone we would still have a drive to procreate.
Just because you’re logical doesn’t mean that you’ll figure out the answers to particular questions (like whether it’s better to be logical or emotional). Personally, I would end up keeping the logic circuit connected. Emotions are just a genetic push towards behavior that evolution has found conducive to the continuance of the species. As a creature capable of abstract thinking, we don’t need this sort of innate programming. All it does, really, is make us do stupid things like looking at a nice pair of gams and thinking we’re in love. Evolutionary programming is pretty slap-dash.
Personally, I don’t think “wants” exist independently, but are rather manifestations of our genetic programming. “Wanting” to love, to me, is no different from “wanting” to blink. They’re just programmed behaviors, one high-level and one low-level.
Likewise, I believe emotions are a way of keeping us on-task and focused on those wants. They don’t determine the wants to begin with – most human wants are pretty similar, I think – they just let us know whether we’re getting closer (happy happy joy joy) or further away (sad).
Do you think you’d care? You wouldn’t have the capacity to be unhappy about your lack of happiness. Does your computer or microwave seem particularly miserable to you?