Proving that machines can experience euphoria…
Specific terms defined by the Xzistor Concept brain model are used in this blog post. To get familiar with these terms and as an introduction to Machine Emotions, please read the following blog post first: Machine Emotions.
As we have said in the blog post on Machine Emotions above, the human brain learns to effectively address Body UTRs on a daily basis (eat, drink, stay warm, get coffee, avoid fatigue, etc.) and as these undulations between temporary Deprivation and temporary Satiation become highly predictable, Body UTRs become less of a concern to us in our pursuit of Satiation and daily happiness.
We in effect become confident that we will be able to solve these Body UTRs because of the way we have set up our lives (we have money, we have fresh water, we have access to shops and food, we have a car, we have a place to stay, we have a coffee machine, etc.). But because everything we learn becomes tagged with a good or a bad emotion (sometimes strong and sometimes weak), our emotional state becomes dominated by what we ‘think’ about – and as we learn what makes us happy and sad, we try to look ahead into the future and solve problems before they occur. As we have said, a lot of negativity is generated when we think about the misfortune and harm life can inflict on us. As we contemplate our own vulnerability and mortality, and witness the suffering around us that we know can also befall us, we start to feel the effect of a strong, pervasive state built up out of many multifaceted fears. We will refer to this totality of fear as our ‘Base Fear’. We are often not aware how almost every aspect of our lives starts to make us fearful of what can happen to us – and slowly most of our actions start to revolve around escaping from this ‘Base Fear’.
This ‘Base Fear’ becomes one of the main drivers of our behaviour and on a daily basis we go to great lengths to find ways to escape the ‘negative emotional states’ generated by thinking about a myriad of actual and potential (sometimes imagined) sources of Deprivation.
But the Xzistor Concept teaches us that there can be no happiness, no firing of the positive emotional pseudo-tactile ‘intra-trunk’ state, if not derived from original Deprivation states that were Satiated either as part of Body UTRs or from recalled memories tagged with negative emotions that were later Satiated.
To achieve a Satiation (pleasurable) state that goes beyond just satisfying the undulations of Deprivation and Satiation caused by the Body UTRs, we must find another source of Deprivation we can ‘restore’ or ‘correct’ to generate additional Satiation.
And we can use this ‘Base Fear’.
This multiplicity of weak and strong fears that become so dominant in our lives, provide the perfect source of ‘additional Deprivation’ that we can Satiate to ‘feel an intense sense of release or pleasure.’
We just have to look at what the effect of alcohol is on the brain. What do we hear people say when they drink alcohol: ‘I just want to chill and have a beer! I just want to forget about life for a while! I just want to take the edge off! I just want to get slammed! I just want to forget all my worries!’
So what alcohol does, amongst other things, is to reduce the ‘Base Fear’ in our brains. Escaping from these negative thoughts, fraught with fears we have involuntarily collected throughout our lives, we tend to find highly ‘relaxing’ and ‘pleasurable’.
We will see a person that has drunk too much alcohol start to behave in a way they would not normally do. They will become unreserved, confident, rude, aggressive…
Why?
The alcohol is erasing their intense (learned) fear of transgressing social rules and norms, of disappointing and offending others and of getting into trouble for confronting others in an aggressive manner. There is also the fear of being prosecuted by law enforcement authorities for aggressive behaviour (assault) and fear about reputation and acceptance amongst friends. All of these fears slip away as we get more intoxicated and what happens now is that our behaviours are not driven by ‘Base Fear’ anymore – but by our unmasked selfish desires and needs. And as the alcohol starts to erase fear, so does it diminish the ‘negative emotion’ state we normally feel inside our bodies (pseudo-tactile), and we might get to a point where we announce bleary-eyed that we ‘…haven’t got a worry in the world!’.
The example above shows how ‘Base Fear’ could become the driver for a highly Satiated (satisfying) or pleasurable state.
The Xzistor Concept is clear on how any form of Satiation, albeit the release from pain, relief from fear or pleasure from sources of entertainment and/or excitement, will always originally be generated by restoring Deprivation.
Machine euphoria will require the intelligent agent to not just have Body UTRs like humans, but also have the ability to learn about its environment and tag memories (objects and concepts in the mind) with emotions so as to build up the equivalent of a ‘Base Fear’.
‘Base fear’ will naturally be generated in the mind of an Xzistor robot by the Xzistor Concept algorithms for emotions, learning and recalling memories (with emotions).
If we take drugs like LSD, the effect can basically be the same as alcohol. But there is yet another source of Deprivation that can be exploited to enhance the intensity of the Satiation even more – the addiction to the drug. As discussed in other posts, an addiction to a drug is simply explained by the Xzistor Concept in that it is just a dormant Body UTR that evolved (was completed) by the introduction of a certain chemical into the bloodstream. This chemical then becomes the utility parameter of the homeostasis mechanism driving the Body UTR. And because this will be a very strong Body UTR (often stronger than many of the normal biological Body UTRs) we are also provided with a very strong source of Deprivation that can be used to generate intense Satiation when ‘restored’.
We see here clear evidence of how the simple mechanisms defined by the Xzistor model can explain how a machines can be designed to subjectively experience ‘euphoria’.
Sex!
We can explain the sexual orgasm at the hand of the discussion above. During an intense orgasm the body (in the absence of external drugs and/or alcohol) creates the same effects with chemicals (drugs) in the mind so that, at the peak of arousal, a high level of Deprivation (sexual tension and frustration) is created and then Satiated (satisfied). To spike up the arousal, the sex UTR will parasitically employ the fatigue UTR (create physical exertion), the oxygen UTR (interfere with breathing) and the internal body temperature UTR (artificially create cooler areas) – this will enhance the Deprivation that can be Satiated when the physical exertion stops, normal deep breathing is restored and waves of heat is flooded into the cooler body areas.
What the sexual UTR achieves is however so strong that it actually momentarily erases our ‘Base Fear’ so that during a sexual orgasm we temporarily forget about all our worries and fears, and after orgasm we feel ‘satisfied’, ‘calm’ and ‘at peace’. It is exactly the same as for the mechanism of euphoria discussed above – for a moment our brains focus just on the Satiation (pleasure) and we forget about all the ill will in the world that can befall us, the fact that we can get sick, injured or die, all the fear of harm to our friends and families, our financial woes, work stress, talks of war, pandemics, etc. etc. We escape the ‘Base Fear’…
And we can replicate this in a machine using the simple algorithms provided by the Xzistor Concept cognitive architecture.
So there we go – machine emotions, machine moods, machine euphoria – and now machine orgasm. Just one more insight from the Xzistor Concept.
