Emotions and Subjective Experience

Chapter 7. Emotions and Subjective Experience

Dissolving the hard problem · Simple and complex concepts · Three levels of emotions · Embodiment

7. 1. Dissolving the hard problem of consciousness

The hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers) was traditionally formulated as a single one: why does subjective experience exist at all? As shown in Chapter 1, Gativus does not solve it in its original statement and makes no claim to. Within the adopted engineering method the hard problem is dissolved — decomposed into three separate problems of necessary conditions, one at each level of the architecture of subjective reality. Dissolved, not solved: this is a consequence of the methodological choice, not a proof that experience is identical to its architecture.

At each level what is formulated is not the identity «experience is such-and-such», but a condition without which experience of the given type is impossible:

Subjective experience of a given level requires the presence of a vector distance at that level and work directed at nullifying it. Where there is no corresponding vector, there is no experience of that kind.

Table 7.1. The three necessary conditions of subjective experience.

The hard problem seemed insoluble because it was formulated as a single one. The decomposition into three levels shows that subjective experience is not a mystical property added to the structure from outside, but the name for this very structure, for which at each level a necessary condition is established: the presence of a corresponding vector distance. It is important to hold on to the status of the conclusion. The weak reading — «experience of a given type requires its vector architecture» — is a statement about a necessary condition, and it is precisely this that the whole book uses. The strong reading — «distance is the experience in its entirety» — remains a working position, not a proved result: it is vulnerable to the philosophical-zombie argument and is not proved by the architecture. The decomposition into necessary conditions survives the zombie objection; the claim to a final solution does not.

7. 2. Concepts: from the simple to the complex

The level GTR3 is the most complex; it is precisely on it, in the coordinate system formed by concepts, that the qualitative properties of experience are determined. Concepts differ in complexity.

Simple concepts — the experience of color, sound, pain. These are convolutions of GTR3 on small groups of narratives connected with one sensory channel. They are present in many and are formed relatively early.

Complex concepts — honor, conscience, justice, beauty. These are convolutions of GTR3 on large, deeply interconnected groups of narratives. They require rich narrative experience (MP23) and social evaluation (the shared concepts of culture). They are formed late and not in everyone.

The difference between simple and complex concepts is not qualitative, but quantitative: the volume of the dataset on which the convolution was trained. The mechanism is one — the convolution of GTR3. This explains why the experience of color is available to almost everyone and early, while the experience of justice as a concept requires long narrative and social experience.

7. 3. Emotions: a three-level structure

Emotions, like subjective experience, exist at all three levels. One and the same basic emotion (joy, fear, anger, sadness) has different content, a different subject, and a different object at each level. The subject of an emotion is the operational network of the level — that same «I» that holds the loop of thinking (Chapter 6).

a) Emotions of the GTR1 level (physical)

Subject: OP13. Mechanism: a change of the b-vector, reflected by a marker in TRL1. A dog «rejoices» — its b-vector shortens, the goal approaches; «is afraid» — the b-vector is directed away from the threat. These emotions are present in all animals with a behavioral level; their content is the change of distance in physical space.

b) Emotions of the GTR2 level (symbolic)

Subject: OP23. Mechanism: a change of the k-vector, reflected by a completion marker in TRL2. A person «rejoices» at the solution of a problem — the k-vector is nullified, the narrative has closed; «is anxious» — the k-vector is open, the narrative is unfinished. These emotions are connected with meanings, not with physical space: joy is caused not by food, but by a solved problem, not by warmth, but by an understood text.

c) Emotions of the GTR3 level (conceptual)

Subject: OP33. Mechanism: a change of the w-vector, reflected by the quality of sublation in TRL3. A person experiences shame, pride, the sense of justice — the w-vector shortens or grows. Joy at this level is caused not by food and not by a solved problem, but by the sublation of a contradiction between two concepts — the is and the ought.

7. 4. The matrix of emotions

Table 7.2. One basic emotion — three realizations.

7. 5. Conflicting emotions

The matrix explains why a person can simultaneously experience conflicting emotions — joy at one level and sadness at another. The three subjects are three independent sources of emotions.

1. •

   A soldier rejoices at returning home (GTR1: b-vector → 0) and simultaneously experiences shame for the comrades left behind (GTR3: w-vector grows).

2. •

   A scientist rejoices at the solution of a problem (GTR2: narrative closed) and simultaneously feels physical discomfort from lack of sleep (GTR1: b-vector not nullified).

3. •

   A person is calm physically (GTR1: all b-vectors nullified) and symbolically (GTR2: no open narratives), but experiences a deep inner stagnation (GTR3: an unclosed WILL in TRL3).

The last example gives an architectural description of «dejection amid outward well-being»: the physical and symbolic levels are in order, the conceptual is blocked. The status should be qualified: this is a structural description of the phenomenon of stagnation, not a clinical diagnosis. Depression as a medical condition has many causes; the architectural picture indicates only one possible mechanism — an unclosed w-vector, maintaining the background activity of the conceptual level.

7. 6. The interaction of levels

The emotions of the three levels are not isolated — they influence one another through compilation.

Downward influence. A conceptual emotion (GTR3) generates changes at the narrative level (GTR2), and those at the physical (GTR1). Shame (a w-vector) generates obsessive thoughts (an unclosed narrative), which give physical discomfort — a «lump in the throat», a «heaviness in the chest» — as a b-vector without a motor output.

Upward influence. Physical pain (markers in TRL1) through direct convolution generates a narrative about pain (GTR2), which through the convolution of GTR3 may change the concepts (GTR3). Chronic pain changes the personality — this is not a metaphor, but an architectural process: TRL1 → TRL2 → TRL3, where the accumulated pain experience rebuilds the field of concepts and the history of their resolution.

7. 7. Embodiment

The mechanism of the downward compilation of emotions explains embodiment: why subjective experiences have a bodily expression.

Concepts and volitional acts — objects of the GTR3 level — are initially devoid of spatial properties. But in the downward compilation of the w-vector the consequences are realized as the generation of new objects on the maps of GTR1 and markers in TRL1, acquiring a bodily dimension. The compilation can finish in two ways:

1. •

   External action — the b-vector is realized as a motor command; the person acts.

2. •

   Bodily sensation without action — the compilation reaches the behavioral level MP13, but does not pass the deconvolution into the motor subsystem (SERN). A «stuck» b-vector arises: a physical sensation without movement. This is a structural description of the psychosomatic mechanism — not a clinical diagnosis: bodily symptoms have different natures, and the architecture indicates only one possible path of their arising.

Both variants often accompany each other. Subjective experience and the physical body are connected not by chance, but through a strictly defined chain of levels.

7. 8. Conclusions

1. •

   The hard problem of consciousness is dissolved by decomposition into three levels, not declared solved. At each level subjective experience requires its vector distance (a necessary condition). The strong identification «distance = experience» remains a working position, vulnerable to the zombie argument.

2. •

   Concepts differ in complexity — from simple (color, sound, pain) to complex (honor, conscience). The mechanism is one — the convolution of GTR3; the difference is quantitative (the volume of narrative experience).

3. •

   Emotions exist at all three levels, differing in content and subject. The subject of an emotion is the operational network of the level (OP13/OP23/OP33). One basic emotion has three realizations.

4. •

   Conflicting emotions are explained by the independence of the three subjects: joy at GTR1 and sadness at GTR3 can coexist. «Dejection amid well-being» is a structural description of stagnation, not a diagnosis.

5. •

   Embodiment is the result of downward compilation: a concept acquires a bodily dimension through the chain GTR3 → GTR2 → GTR1.

6. •

   Psychosomatics is a «stuck» b-vector: the compilation reached the behavioral level, but did not pass into the motor subsystem. This is a structural description of the mechanism, not a clinical diagnosis.