In part two of this series I presented a similar scenario to part one, except that the threat that NASA was reacting to was part of itself (one of its satellites) rather than something external (an asteroid).
Before I explain how this relates to my theory of empathy, I'd like to show how many of the inner workings of NASA relate to the inner workings of a Human mind and body.
- The NASA telescopes are analogous to our eyes.
- The systems that detect moving targets that might be threats are analogous to our motion detectors.
- The mechanism that focuses more NASA resources on a potential threat is an example of attention.
- The signal that provides a sense of urgency and a potentially bad outcome if the threat is not dealt with is analogous to the emotion of fear (1).
- The gradual organization of NASA's resources around a single objective is analogous to consciousness (2).
- NASA experts are analogous to 'higher thought'.
- The creation of different plans of action is analogous to creativity.
- Postulating different possible outcomes is analogous to imagination.
Here are some additional notes:
(1) I blogged about emotions here. In this scenario, I'm talking about the signal of fear rather than the sensation of fear. I do believe that NASA has the sensation of fear, and will blog about this topic later, but for the time being I'd prefer to avoid the so-called "hard problem" since it's irrelevant to this discussion.
(2) I blogged about consciousness here and here. In this scenario, I'm talking more about A-consciousness than P-consciousness.
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