[Deep Thoughts] Emotionality

[Kyle]

Are emotions necessary for human survival? Why or why not?

[Mike]

Probably.

Certainly emotions were vital for the development of the species. Emotions provide cognitive shortcuts that increase chances for survival. Emotions were necessary for the development of our complex social structures that led to increased cognition and society in general. Nowadays, emotions are not necessarily required for an individual to survive and thrive, and potentially we've gotten far enough that maybe we don't really need emotions at all anymore. However, it's so complex, and emotions are so integral to human culture that I'm sure it's not as simple as "turn off emotions and allow logic to rule". There will be consequences of that situation that we can't even imagine right now. So I say probably.

[bralbovsky]

We have tons of sensors to tell us about our environment. That's great, and absolutely evolutionary.

We have few sensors to tell us about our internal environment. Emotions are the closest we get. Arousal, discomfort, pleasure (not necessarily the same as excitement) are our primary colors, and our more subtle and nuanced modern emotions are the newest edition of the mega crayola box that allows us to navigate a quickly changing planet with some seven billion of us on it.

I use the color metaphor purposefully. Our ontogeny of color perception and definition grows increasingly more complex and distinguished as time goes on. We can trace the incidence of color in literature. The Greeks were pretty limited; the Romans less so, but we have no Old English word for orange (stolen from French.) I don't think this was because the color or wavelength didn't exist, but because certain cultures didn't perceive and define it.

Emotions are similar. We have the basics as babies, and our experiences and cultures help us to perceive and define them. It's less obviously evolutionary, but our choice of mates, our choice of living by the picturesque lake, our responses to our emotions absolutely are part of the self awareness that makes us human. Ambivalence is counter to survival. Flight/fight, if I can't decide, I'm lunch. (Keep in mind here that the correct decision is not guaranteed, just because we can make it quickly.)
The modern world is much more complex, and survival turns less often on the millisecond decision, so it's allowed us to deepen our palette of emotions, and those without them generally do not thrive.