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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 01/11/2025 13:32, bill w wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.10.1762003957.18922.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap=""><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Here is an extremely interesting study on those two.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">A man somehow had a brain injury that severed the connection between his amygdala and his forebrain. This cuts off emotions from the decision-making process.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Result: decisions are made without emotion. His IQ and overall intelligence levels were unchanged. Thus he had only reason from the forebrain to run his life.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">He could not make the slightest decision. He was given intellectual work but when he finished he could not move to the next problem. He could not decide if he wanted a cup of coffee. His decision-making process was frozen.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">So this is what happens when we have only reason to make decisions.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">So our conclusion has to be that emotions are involved in every decision we make, no matter how trivial.</div></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
I don't think you can make that conclusion from this story (you
didn't give a link to the study).<br>
<br>
It's not as simple as 'he only had reason to run his life'.<br>
<br>
If that was the case, I'd think he'd be able to use reason to
conclude that in the absence of a feeling towards making one
decision or another, a random choice would work. And that making
decisions was essential for survival. He'd be able to think that a
"coffee makes sense, given that I haven't had anything to drink for
three hours, and dehydration is bad", etc.<br>
<br>
I think what's going on there is that as well as cutting off
emotional connection to the forebrain, the mechanisms for directing
attention and resolving competing tasks were also cut off.<br>
<br>
As I said earlier, the whole concept of 'emotion vs. reason' is not
very useful. People like simple scenarios. Natural vs. Artificial.
Nature vs. Nature. Black vs. White. Things are almost never that
simple.<br>
<br>
In fact, I suspect that the whole concept of 'emotion' as a single
thing is counter-productive when thinking about these things.
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben</pre>
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