[ExI] what's the use?

[efc at disroot.org]

It is fascinating how differently people are wired! This also makes life 
more interesting. =)

On Fri, 11 Oct 2024, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat wrote:

> When I was a teen I loved horror movies and don't recall why.  I did get scared and usually ran all the way home.  Not now.  I have
> never gotten emotional from the visual arts - not at all.  Ideas can get me really excited but not in an emotional way.  It's more
> manic.  I get on my laptop and order some relevant books.
> 
> When I was in NIce, a touring choir put on Mozart' Requiem.  I turned and told my wife that I would not be able to communicate during
> the performance.  It just choked me up.  There are time when I have to turn off a CD at home or in my car.  Starting to tear up is
> not consistent with good driving.    I have played several instruments since I was young but do not know if that has anything to do
> with it.  Complete mystery to me.
> 
> “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them”. 
>  Hume    (well, maybe not totally slavish - some emotions are destructive)  bill w
> 
> On Tue, Oct 8, 2024 at 3:26 AM efc--- via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
>
>       On Sun, 6 Oct 2024, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat wrote:
>
>       > The science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural
>       selection in
>       > biology. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose research overturns the
>       long-standing
>       > belief that emotions are automatic, universal, and hardwired in different brain regions. Instead, Barrett shows, we
>       construct each
>       > instance of emotion through a unique interplay of brain, body, and culture.
>       >
>       > This is a blurb from Amazon for the bookI recently read:  
>       >              How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Paperback – Illustrated, March 13, 2018  Lisa Barett -
>       >                                                      psychologist/neuroscientist
>       >
>       >
>       > Basic idea is fairly old:  emotions are nothing but arousal interpreted.  Arousal on a roller-coaster gets interpreted
>       by some as
>       > fear, by some as excitement, and by some as both.  The fear giving the excitement a bit of a frisson.  
>       >
>       > As for music - I have no idea, but nothing in this world can get me more emotional than music. It doesn't have to be
>       classical.
>
>       Fascinating! Music does not at all have this effect on me. I'm this
>       strange kind of human being who appreciates music, but, for me it is not
>       essential in any way. I can go many days and weeks, quite happily, without
>       hearing a song.
>
>       Books, ideas, and movies cause more profound emotional reactions for me
>       than music most of the time.
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> 
>