Emotions as a Communication Medium between the Unconscious and the Conscious

摘要

Emotions are conceptualized and framed as a separate entity in human’s cognitive architecture. In this paper I present the different idea that emotions are the form in which the result from a high dimensional optimization process happening in the unconscious is communicated to the low dimensional conscious. Instead of framing emotions as a separate sub component of our cognitive system, I argue for emotions as the main characteristic of the communication between the unconscious and the conscious. Based on this holistic view I recommend a different design and architecture for entertainment robots and other entertainment products with ‘emotional’ behavior. Intuition is the powerful information processing function of the unconscious while emotion is the result of this process communicated to the conscious. Emotions are the perception of the mapping from the high dimensional problem solving space of the unconscious to the low dimensional space of the conscious.