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xssve -> RE: Organic brain (5/25/2011 2:34:21 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Kirata
quote:
ORIGINAL: xssve
It's survival 101, the priorities are shelter, water, food, in that order. Ask any survival expert basically, I think I learned it in the Boys Scouts originally.
Sounds like it. And fair enough, if Survival 101 is all you mean. But I'll take the trouble to point out that a human being's "basic needs," which is the phrase you used, and what someone needs to have in order to survive until he is rescued or can make his way back to his friends and loved ones, are not the same thing.
The most basic of all human needs is social interaction. Newborns fail to thrive and even die without social interaction, notwithstanding being "hydrated" and fed. Even as adults, extended (and, most disastrously, indefinite) isolation from social interaction, whether in the wilderness or in solitary confinement, will sooner or later unhinge almost anyone. People living alone in the wilderness develop relationships with animals in their environment, even if they have to invent them. A prisoner will make a "pal" out of a rat. Anything. Just something.
Good point, I was just trying to keep it concise, but yes, we are a social species, and there is some distinction between being alive and "living".
It expands on the basic point, what social needs might a volitional AI have? Will it go insane without companionship? I'm sure the subject has been covered in SF, there's an example hovering at the edge of my consciousness, maybe I'll think of it later, but it's another unpredictable factor.
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ORIGINAL: Kirata
quote:
ORIGINAL: xssve
It's the clinical definition in psychology, most psychological disorders are classified as pathologies, exaggerations of normal behavior.
The definition of pathology is most definitely not "simply an exaggeration of normality" that is not "synonymous with unhealthy," neither in Clinical Psychology nor anywhere else. Pathology is precisely synonymous with disease, and, if you'll forgive me for pointing this out too, disease isn't "healthy."
K.
Disease is often a normal process out of control, Cancer is out of control cellular growth, but virtually all pathologies in psychology are exaggerations of otherwise normal psychological processes - the lexicon of psychology is extremely convoluted, and terms are often borrowed freely from other disciplines to add to the confusion, I'm quite sure I've seen the word "pathology" used in that manner, and that was my meaning.
Regardless, my point is, eating Loveburger instead of a nice Ribeye, aesthetics aside, won't kill you, any marked preference is largely an exaggeration of the basic need for sustenance.
Aesthetics are basically a step up to another order of complexity - in fact, we do exhibit preferences for certain aesthetic "ideals" - people are more likely to judge a face attractive if it exhibits a high degree of bilateral symmetry - bilateral symmetry itself is associated with a robust immune system.
Neoteny is another good example, neotenic faces are generally considered more attractive, especially in women (you get your brains from your mother), and neoteny might indicate a prolongation of cerebral as well as physical maturation: children and adolescents learn much faster, absorb more information in a shorter time span than the average mature adult, so an extension of this phase theoretically offers certain evolutionary advantages.
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