Influence & Emotions I

1. CIIC 5995-100 / ICOM 5995-100
Human Perspective in Artificial Intelligence
(HPAI)
Professor José Meléndez, PhD
“This distinction between thinking and emotion has wasted a
century of psychologists' time, because they don't understand
that each emotion is a particular way to think.”
- Marvin Minsky (1927-2016)

2. Today
• Review & Logistics
• Influence Tactics
• Emotions I-II-III-IV ScanQR Code to Verify your Class Attendance
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3. Required Reading - Pace yourself
• Influence Tactics by Dr. George Simon Jr. (on Moodle)
• Excerpt of Chapter 6 of Character Disturbance: The
Phenomenon of Our Age
• The kinds of things we want AI to help us with.
• How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain
• Chapter 6: How the Brain Makes Emotions
• Chapter 7: Emotions as Social Reality
• Chapter 8: A New View of Human Nature
• Chapter 9: Mastering Your Emotions
• Chapter 13: From Brain to Mind: The New Frontier
• The brain integrates, “so much information from multiple sources
so efficiently that it can support consciousness.”

4. Last Homework & Report
• Homework #5 (the last homework)
• Influence Tactics & Emotions
• Subject to Due Dates Vote
• Due Wednesday, May 6, 2020 by 11:59PM
• Project Report & Software
• “Mini Mind Modules – Inner Robots & Bias”
• Subject to Due Dates Vote
• Due Friday May 15, 2020 by 11:59PM

5. Discussion of Exam #2 Results (Fully Graded)
Brain Cells & Memory - Analog & Digital
Brain Inter-Cellular Communication
Prediction Error and Expectations
Mini-Module Concept Application – Fast
• Simplifies Reality
• Fabricates Reality (Fills in Blanks)

6. Exam #2: Inter-Cellular Communication
Name and describe 5 ways in which a cell could
communicate information with other cells.
3D Rendered Neuron: http://cinpla.org/2015/02/10/creating-a-3d-neuron-scene-in-blender-3/

7. https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/what-is-cytosol-how-is-it-different-from-cytoplasm.html
Name and describe 5 ways in which a cell could
communicate information with other cells.
Exam #2: Inter-Cellular Communication

8. Name and describe 5 ways in which a cell could
communicate information with other cells.
3D Rendered Neuron: http://cinpla.org/2015/02/10/creating-a-3d-neuron-scene-in-blender-3/
Cell movement
Physical Interaction
Ions, proteins, or anything else from one cell to another
Exam #2: Inter-Cellular Communication

9. Next Up
• Influence Tactics
• Emotions I-II-III-IV
ScanQR Code to Verify your Class Attendance
https://forms.gle/newZj7do8D6KVPwz8
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10. Influence Tactics (Review)
Others influence but may also control Us?
The Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky, p. 59. (Modified)
Influence
&
Control

11. Influence Tactics
1. Rationalization (making excuses):
Justifying a behavior or making an excuse for something you
know is regarded as wrong.
2. Externalizing the Blame (Blaming others):
Blaming your misbehavior on someone or something else.
3. Denial:
Unwillingness to admit you have done anything wrong.
4. Minimizing:
Portraying something important to be of lesser importance
5. Lying:
Not telling the truth – lying by distortion, omission or
vagueness
Knowingly?

12. Influence Tactics
6. Bullying:
Using anger or rage to obtain submission through fear.
7. Covert Intimidation:
Subtle or implied threats of bad consequences to another.
8. Evasion:
Avoiding a subject or an issue brought up.
9. Diversion (deflecting or shifting focus):
Deflecting attention from yourself to someone else.
10. Giving Assent (“Your right.”):
Acting as if to agree or to concede a point.
Knowingly?

13. Influence Tactics
11. Posturing:
“Challenging” the legitimacy of another’s view or position.
12. Playing the Victim:
Acting as a victim of an injustice to elicit sympathy.
13. Feigning Ignorance or Confusion:
Acting as if to not understand or to not know in order to
cause doubts.
14. Feigning Innocence:
Acting as if to have done nothing wrong or on purpose.
15. Playing the Servant:
Acting as if you are only trying to help or care for another
Knowingly?

14. Influence Tactics
16. Seduction:
Flatter with false praise or compliments to gain favor.
17. Shaming (Embarrassing):
Creating awareness of another’s bad or foolish behavior.
18. Guilt-Tripping:
Convincing another that they have done something very
wrong or unacceptable.
19. Vilifying the Victim:
Ascribing ill behavior and intent to an innocent and/or victim.
20. Selective Attention:
Paying attention only to what suits (lo que le conviene).
Knowingly?

15. Influence Tactics
21. Hypervigilance:
Chronically questioning the motives of others.
22. Conning and Contracting:
Making deceptive deals to get the cooperation of others.
23. Escaping on a “Technicality”:
Focusing attention on small or unimportant details.
24. False Concessioning:
Making a small admission or conceding a minor point to another.
25. Leveling:
Establishing one’s character at least to the level of another’s.
26. Manipulation by Insinuation:
Misleading by parsing words in a calculated manner.
Knowingly?

16. Influence Tactics
CLASSDISCUSSION
• Conscious or Not – Does it matter?
• Are humans fully responsible for their actions?
• Applying prediction loops to others:
• Control or merely Influence AI?

17. Next Up
• Emotions I-II-III-IV

18. Optional Reading (and Videos)
• Brains, Minds, AI, God: Marvin Minsky Thought Like
No One Else (Tribute)
• https://www.space.com/amp/32153-god-artificial-
intelligence-and-the-passing-of-marvin-minsky.html
• Interview article by Robert Kuhn
• An unusual article about an unusual yet influential person
• Warning: Some readers may be offended.

19. Marvin Minsky
• American Cognitive Scientist
• Well-Recognized Artificial Intelligence Scientist
• Founder MIT AI Laboratory (1959)
• SNARC (1951)
• The Emotion Machine (2006)
• Turing Award Winner (1969)
• Society of Mind Theory (1970s)
• Intelligence is the product of the interaction of non-intelligent
parts
• Recall: Words are meaningful concepts comprised of meaningless
letters.
• Humans are machines with intelligence arising from many
unintelligent, semi-autonomous agents of the brain.
• Minsky was an atheist

20. Myths
• Logical decision-making is separate and distinct from
emotion
• Logical thinking is separate and distinct from emotional
thinking
• Thinking is separate and distinct from emotion
• Emotions are inherently good or bad
• We “express” our emotions distinctly from our thoughts
• We can feel the emotions of others
• Humans uniquely feel emotions because we are made up
of fundamentally different materials than animals

21. Key Questions
• How do the physical systems in our bodies and
brains produce feelings and thoughts?
• What are the relevant components of the physical
systems?
• How do non-intelligent components collaborate to
realize intelligence?
• Are we really intelligent?

22. How Your Emotional Abilities Develop
• Your brain is comprised of networked neurons.
• Your brain develops while trapped inside your head and
body.
• Your brain develops within a reality it can never truly
know.
• Your brain in your head in your body develops
interacting with other brains in other heads in other
bodies.
• These interactions contribute meaningfully to who you
are and what you “care about” (feel concern, interest,
or importance) today and in your future.
• What you care about (or what you think others you
care about care about) is strongly connected to what
you experience emotion about.

23. Why Emotions are so Important
• Emotions signal your brain to devote attention to
something you care about.
• Body Budget
• Affective Niche
• Emotions form part of the computations your mind
makes as it constantly predicts the world around it and
what it should do within it.
• Emotions do not explicitly provide information
regarding cause (affective realism) or action
• Whether innate or not, the concepts used in forming
your emotional thoughts (all your thoughts) may not be
completely accessible to your consciousness (as for
your other senses).
• Whether innate or not, the concepts used in forming
your thoughts may not all be changeable.

24. Playing in Mud
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html
https://tinkergarten.com/activities/making-mud
A child is playing with
mud. Equipped with a
fork, a spoon, and a cup,
the goal is to bake a
make-believe cake, the
way a parent had. Let’s
assume that the child is
playing alone, and
imagine three things that
might happen.

25. Playing in Mud – Occurrence Set #1
• Playing alone. A child wants to fill a cup with mud,
and first tries to do this with a fork, but this fails
because the mud slips through. The child feels
frustrated and disappointed. But when success is
achieved by using the spoon, the child feels satisfied
and pleased.
• Experience and Lessons
• A fork does not carry mud well (intermediate failure)
• Spoons carry fluids well (intermediate success)
• By trial and error
• Self-taught (and self-reinforced “emotionally”)
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html

26. • A Stranger Scolds. Unexpectedly, a stranger
reproaches: "That's a gross thing to do." The child
feels anxious, alarmed, and afraid. Overcome by fear
and an urge to escape, the child puts the present
goal on hold—and runs to find a parent.
• Experience and Lessons
• That playing in mud is gross? (Emotions change the focus)
• The place is dangerous (association to place)
• Should be less adventurous (when reinforced)
• Self-taught (and self-reinforced “emotionally”)
• But what prior experiences contributed to being
overcome by fear - feeling anxious, alarmed, and afraid?
Playing in Mud – Occurrence Set #2
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html

27. • Parent’s Reproach. The child returns to a parent's
protection—but instead of assurance, the parent
rebukes. "What a disgraceful mess you've made!
See what you've done to your clothes and face. I
cannot stand to look at you!" The child, ashamed,
begins to cry.
• Experience and Lessons
• Less inclined to play with mud
• Less likely to venture out alone
• Ashamed instead of proud.
Playing in Mud – Occurrence Set #3
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html

28. • Emotional Concepts (States) of Thought
• excitement, frustration, disappointment, satisfaction,
pleased (pleasure), accomplished, confidence
• surprise, anxious, alarm, fear, panic
• disgrace, ugly, ashamed, uncertain, lonely
• Participants
• Child – Has access to own senses, perceptions,
memories, and thoughts (inclusive of emotions)
• Stranger – Created occurrences (Direct and Internal)
influencing Child’s reality.
• Parent – Created occurrences (Direct and Internal)
influencing Child’s reality
Playing in Mud – Discussion
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html

29. • Child
• About how old is the child?
• Is the child a boy or a girl?
• Stranger
• About how old is the stranger?
• Is the stranger a man or a woman?
• Parent
• About how old is the parent?
• Is the parent a man or a woman?
• How is the child related to the parent?
Playing in Mud – Questions

30. Playing in Mud – Are you Biased?
• Playing alone. A child wants to fill a cup with mud, and
first tries to do this with a fork, but this fails because
the mud slips through. The child feels frustrated and
disappointed. But when success is achieved by using the
spoon, the child feels satisfied and pleased.
• A Stranger Scolds. Unexpectedly, a stranger reproaches:
"That's a gross thing to do." The child feels anxious,
alarmed, and afraid. Overcome by fear and an urge to
escape, the child puts the present goal on hold—and
runs to find a parent.
• Parent’s Reproach. The child returns to a parent's
protection—but instead of assurance, the parent
rebukes. "What a disgraceful mess you've made! See
what you've done to your clothes and face. I cannot
stand to look at you!" The child, ashamed, begins to cry.
The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky (Adapted)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/eb2.html

31. • If you are 20 years old
• You have lived at least 7,300 days
• You have had at least 175,000 hours of experiences
• You have had at least 10,500,000 minutes for Occurrences
• Participants
• Child – 4 years old or 2 Million Occurrence Minutes (OMs)
• Stranger – 50 years old or 26 Million OMs
• Parent – 31 years old or 16 Million OMs
• Your Experiences span your OMs forming your
Concepts (emotional and otherwise) that inform your
Prediction “Defaults”.
• Prediction Defaults are also known as Mental Shortcuts
or Biases (what the mini-modules do)
Playing in Mud – Observations

32. French Toast
Photo by Elise Bauer
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/french_toast/

33. French Toast
• A friend visiting from Germany staying at our house
asked on a Saturday night if I would make “my French
toast” for breakfast on the Sunday morning.
• I woke up early at 6AM from a nightmare involving
someone who did horrible things to me when I was a
child.
• I decide to have an early start for the day with an aim
of creating the HPAI class slides for that day’s class.
• My wife woke up a few minutes later and wanted to
spend some time together and we chatted for a while.
• At 7AM I went downstairs and began making coffee.
• When my guest greeted me I asked her if she and her
husband would like still for me to make the French
toast.
• She said they would very much like that.

34. French Toast
• She joined me in the kitchen and asked me if I would be using
whole eggs for the French toast.
• I told her normally that in my recipe I use egg whites because
the yolk has the cholesterol and most of the calories.
• She asked if I would put sugar in the mix.
• She said she prefers milk in the mix too.
• And…Sugar in the pan
• I asked my spouse if she would like the French toast or for me
to make us harina de maiz.
• In the end I chose to make harina de maiz for my spouse and
me.
• Our guest thanked me for the French toast and commented
on how good they were.
• I told them that the credit goes to her because it was her
recipe that was used.

35. Next Up
• Emotions and French Toast Continued…
• Review of Modeling Perception (“Model” Models)
• Emotions in Artificial Intelligence Systems