Let’s dive into the past, trace how emotions developed, and think about the challenge they face today.
When living beings first appeared, they were in constant contact with the outside world and other representatives of a wide variety of species. It was necessary to react somehow to the emerging situations.
And although the life of one living being is fleeting, for millions of years those who have adapted better and remembered the lessons of the past, recorded in instincts and emotions, have survived.
When a person encounters something that he may never have seen, his body responds with the memory of his ancestors. The vibrations of various organs that arise in response to a situation allow a person to feel how the body feels about what is happening. And a person feels fear, joy, sadness, anger, and other emotions generated by various vibrations in the body. And a person instantly understands everything without thinking, without analyzing, but only feeling.
In addition, a person’s body can adjust to the vibrations of another person nearby and literally feel the same thing the other person feels. This is how empathy allows people to understand each other, even if they haven’t said a word.
And so the emotions that arise in the body constantly control our behavior, prompting us to respond.
The Mind
In the process of the development of living beings, intelligent rational activity has emerged that allows us to think, remember, analyze what is happening, draw conclusions and make decisions that are much deeper and more accurate, allowing us to take into account many circumstances and achieve significant results.
Emotions show a person what they are feeling at the moment. And the mind allows you to plan and make decisions based on far-reaching plans or knowledge of other people’s past experiences.
And although these two systems can struggle with each other, if you manage to combine them, you can live a life full of joy and common sense.
A sharp turn in social development
And so a parent, watching his child play a multiplayer MMO game and chat with his friends, begins to complain that the child is sitting at the computer and chatting with virtual friends, instead of going and playing in the yard with real ones.
At the same time, the parent himself gets to know people in other cities and countries by phone, discusses joint projects, collects resources, launches construction or work that leads to the appearance of a new grandiose structure. And all the participants meet only at the opening. They have never seen each other before, but the fruits of their joint efforts are tangible.
How does a children’s multiplayer game where people get to know each other, play and make friends online differ from adult games where projects arise in the minds of participants scattered in different places, and collaboration is carried out in the imagination and computer, using digital means of instant communication and remote control of processes.
And soon there will be those for whom such opportunities for international team communication will be available from birth, and they will spend their whole lives building social networks from people with whom they can communicate only by voice or, at best, by video.
Being with another person, a person experiences deep emotions, because his whole body participates in communication and building relationships. And what kind of relationship will be built when there is such a narrow communication channel?
When a person is indifferent to someone, it is reflected in their behavior. But how can you prevent cruelty towards another person if you don’t have a deep emotional interaction? But then it will spread to entire communities and nations, which, on the one hand, can communicate with each other and conduct business at the speed of thought, and on the other hand, anyone on the other end can be represented as a simple avatar. And at any moment, you can block one avatar and start chatting with another.
How to avoid major civilizational tragedies of the devaluation of the value of human life? How to ensure a person‘s love for their neighbor or neighbor when emotional interaction is excluded from the process of human communication?
Is it possible to develop a new regulatory emotional system that uses only the mind to imagine the meanings of text, audio, and video interactions between people? And what kind of person will it be, whose life is going on in his head?
© Vasiliy Deynega, 23 June 2022
Read in: Boosty
