Love and reason

I was thinking about this yesterday in the context of simulated devices like my AI bots and there is a very large hole in the concept of instinctual reasoning that favors personal survival and the complete picture of a virtual entity or living being. I remember a quote from SNG where "Data" says that his neural circuits had become accustomed to someone's input. I guess this is something like I miss the presence of your experience. Or simply , I miss them. I have a great love for my siblings/friends/family and it is not often expressed, and this is one kind of love and certainly there is much more to this than some simple reactive process. This is where emergence meets the universe and though it can be a subject of discussion and many can have an opinion as to it's nature, the fact that it incorporates things which branch to virtual infinity like many emergences, makes it something that shall forever remain a mystery. The -complete- characterization of systems which are emergent is impossible. Some emergent systems do have very well defined states that will be established, and perhaps it will be possible for me to find a method to characterize them more fully. The mushroom and the genotype to phenotype are good examples of emergence and though it is a system of independent single cells, the result is very predictable. This does not mean that it is fully characterized, since almost any factor can lead to some states that defy prediction. I am reminded of experiments where spiders were exposed to LSD-25 and then observed to create webs. Even though under normal circumstances they would produce a web that could be easily predicted in form, once they were exposed to the psychoactive compound, the nature and complexity of their designs was different for the duration of that effect. The emergence that was common to that spider was likely the most effective solution in it's environment that could be achieved by evolutionary progress. It is possible that the random fluctuations in emergence could have produced a better design, but it would never be stable in a biological sense. I guess love is one of those categories that has too many things in it and needs to have more items added so it isn't so confusing to talk about. You know the person I am talking about, the one with a heart and brain. Yes that narrows it down a bit :)

Love and Species

Let's say that I am speaking of the predators from the movie "Aliens" for the sake of argument. Since they have lived their entire history in a state of war between tribes and nations and religions and races and individuals etc. to select the most vicious and survivable of the species. The female of that species must also live in that culture and what would they look for in a mate? I think that if they wanted to survive and care for their children, they would select a top predator. The problem there is that they would also have to live with a relentless predator. In terms of the evolution of new species,( which a continuous process), what would be a more survivable entity in that environment? Certainly the intelligence of the predator would be an issue in their survivability. It seems that the fact that intellect and cooperative action would ultimately win in that environment, would the intermediate species cease to exist? Much is made of the fact that the Cro-Magnon displaced the Neanderthal (I think) but could it be that they simply faded away for lack of skill to deal with life? As much as I make of being a rational, considerate person .... why would I like the movie "Ultraviolet"? The theme of the movie is that "Violet" is a mutant and is killing humans to save her race and adopts a semi-human child and kills thousands of humans to protect that one child. I think that the kill rate in that movie is higher than the "Punisher". This is one of the things that I wonder most about, it is not the joy and peacefulness of love, but the actual interaction of male/female of a species that that has shown such a relentless desire to kill even without any rational motive.

Love and life revisited

I guess the reason I don't get upset if people don't like or accept me is the fact that I have a reason for being the way that I am which originates from my own choices. As far as my physical phenotype, I find that less a part of my self image than any other feature. It may be the fact that I am somewhat exo-centric in my understanding of the universe. The sum and total of my being is not determined by what others are capable of measuring, but what I understand to be the reality of the universe. If I were to judge myself on the basis of what others perceive of me, I would have to exclude the fact that I am familiar with myself and my motives and I can't avoid liking that as it is what I have chosen. If I were to base my self worth on the opinion of others, I would first have to accept that they are a good judge and secondly they would have to have a complete knowledge of me. The first part of that equation can't be true, and the second part is never true. Even if I tried, it would never be possible to relate every aspect of my existence in context to another person. It is nice to be appreciated for what you are. I guess what I really mean is that because of the complexity of human existence it is not possible to know someone else completely, as a result it is not possible to determine their true motive for any decision. I can only guess and if I have to make a mistake, I will err on the side that favors me :) This is very helpful for me as I have realized some very key elements of how I deal with others and how they deal with me. I see that people's motives can be far from direct and clear and that many times the perception of truth is more important to others than the truth itself. Mainly I am making this post to see if it shows up in Google reader and why my statistics for users does not exist :)