Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

374 | HOW THE MIND WORKSwhich comes first). For example, fear is triggered by a signal of impendingharm like a predator, a clifftop, or a spoken threat. It lights up theshort-term goal of fleeing, subduing, or deflecting the danger, and givesthe goal high priority, which we experience as a sense of urgency It alsolights up the longer-term goals of avoiding the hazard in the future andremembering how we got out of it this time, triggered by the state weexperience as relief. Most artificial intelligence researchers believe thatfreely behaving robots (as opposed to the ones bolted to the side of anassembly line) will have to be programmed with something like emotionsmerely for them to know at every moment what to do next. (Whether therobots would be sentient of these emotions is another question, as wesaw in Chapter 2.)Fear also presses a button that readies the body for action, the socalledfight-or-flight response. (The nickname is misleading because theresponse prepares us for any time-sensitive action, such as grabbing ababy who is crawling toward the top of a stairwell.) The heart thumps tosend blood to the muscles. Blood is rerouted from the gut and skin, leavingbutterflies and clamminess. Rapid breathing takes in oxygen. Adrenalinereleases fuel from the liver and helps the blood to clot. And it givesour face that universal deer-in-the-headlights look.Each human emotion mobilizes the mind and body to meet one of thechallenges of living and reproducing in the cognitive niche. Some challengesare posed by physical things, and the emotions that deal withthem, like disgust, fear, and appreciation of natural beauty, work instraightforward ways. Others are posed by people. The problem in dealingwith people is that people can deal back. The emotions that evolvedin response to other people's emotions, like anger, gratitude, shame, andromantic love, are played on a complicated chessboard, and they spawnthe passion and intrigue that misleads the Romantic. First let's exploreemotions about things, then emotions about people.THE SUBURBAN SAVANNAThe expression "a fish out of water" reminds us that every animal isadapted to a habitat. Humans are no exception. We tend to thinkthat animals just go where they belong, like heat-seeking missiles, but theanimals must experience these drives as emotions not unlike ours. Some