Emotions 102

I had earlier written a 101 post (https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/10/emotions-101.html) with mostly reading material and some quotes from those.

Recently, I came across a nice link: http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/brain-process-emotions/

What follows is my understanding from the link - it took some time for me to process the information in the article.

The Limbic system in the brain consists of Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Amygdala (and other structures):

• Brain receives sensory information through chemicals such as serotonin, dopomine, acting as neuro transmitters and thus recognizes objects and situations.
• The Hypothalamus:

• Controls the hormones that adjust or create our mood. 
• Manages our biological processes, sweating, pulse rate etc, "in line with our mood".

• Amygdala "assigns an emotional value to the situation" based on previous steps. Meaning the emotions are a result of both sensory information and our physiological changes (does this agree with 2 Factor theory?)
• The hippocampus then indicates "which courses of action are congruent with our mood and makes split-second risk/reward assessments" = S1 (For an intro into S1, S2 read https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/thinking-fast-and-slow-daniel-kahnemann.html). I assume the hippocampus also triggers the S2 as and when required.

There are newer networks that control our mood. Apparently Limpic system is an older network evolutionarily. Some scientists, as per wiki, believe that the concept of limpic system is obsolete and is out of sync with the current understanding of the brain.

The autographic network deals with memories and reflection. The cognitive control network  (CCN) controls coordination of activities, thoughts etc to get a task completed. Either the autographic network (AN) or the CCN is in the foreground at any instance. I would say AN is related to S1 and CCN to S2. 

Apparently issues in AN, CCN create mood related disorders.

Worst Botchup Ever - The Best

Trump Says Saudi Account of Khashoggi Killing Is ‘Worst Cover-Up’ in History

I am reminded of what a friend once said of her 12 year old daughter. She had been caught stealing a pencil in school. My friend said that she would have been proud of her (daughter)  had she done it smartly and not got caught. But she was so silly, she got caught. My friend was very annoyed with her.

What the cartoon finds reprehensible is not the macabre act but the silly way it's being covered up by KSA.

Enneagram 8?

Additional Reading:

1. https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-other-saman.html
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/22/essential-cons-that-define-trumps-success/ Excellent summary of Trump
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/yes-trump-is-undignified-demagogues-have-to-be/2019/03/08/bd8d8d9c-4109-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html Nice one
4. How Donald Trump inflated his net worth to lenders and investors - Don't trust my statement. It doesn't give the full picture
5. Trump administration authorized nuclear energy companies to share technological information with Saudi Arabia: Both Trump and Sudi have huge drives and minimal ethics. Great bed partners
6. U.S. Role in Yemen War Will End Unless Trump Issues Second Veto
7. National Enquirer Put Up for Sale: Trump trying to "Catch And Kill" associates who ate too risky and thus creates more distance between him and outfits that have been too "dirty"? This will be a great thing to buy for Bezos.
8. Federal judge likens Trump’s attacks on judiciary to KKK https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/13/you-can-hear-klans-lawyers-federal-judge-likens-trumps-attacks-judiciary-kkk/
9. How Trump Lost Half of Washington
10. Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures Show Over $1 Billion in Losses
11. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/05/08/why-we-took-trump-off-the-forbes-400-during-his-decade-of-tax-losses/
12. Confidential draft IRS memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless president invokes executive privilege
13. Second Federal Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block Subpoenas of Financial Documents https://www.wsj.com/articles/second-federal-judge-rules-trump-cant-block-subpoenas-of-financial-documents-11558559850

#SheToo

Imagine if there was a movement (by men) which objected to being bombarded by feminine behavior - showing skin, fluttering eyelashes, SASC (Shaking a** and Showing Cleavage), rolling eyes, expecting that her emotions be given due consideration, crying at work place in front of a man, expectating that men exhibit gentlemanly behavior, protect them, pay for their things, dinner etc.

Imagine further that this movement became big. And that men came out of their cupboards and started to accuse women - van driver or physical education teacher accuses school principal, Lab technician accuses Gynaecologist - "oh yes she too did it to me".

And imagine the school principal or the hospital gynaecologist is fired because a Tom, Dick and maybe Harry too came out and chose to be brave and complain against the horrible women. And these victimized men also say that they insisted that their house have another fire escape because of the terror that they feel when confronted with feminine behavior.

And in a Pristine Blatantly Fraudulent childlike voice they say that they avoid singles bars and they visit those only when needed professionally, maybe as a bartender or a bouncer.

And when further queried as to what he remember of the woman, the man replies in  a quivering voice "she was crying" or "her top blouse button was open". Imagine peeking at cleavage while retaining the right to complain of harrassment by its owner for enabling a man to peek.

Oh my.

Note:
Any resemblance to the testimony by Blasey Ford is purely coincidental. 
(https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/09/christene-blasey-ford-and-brett.html)

Emotions 101

This is about my quest towards getting a deeper understanding of emotions. I jotted down a few questions. And then the rest of the post consists of quotes, without permission, from links that I liked.

My understanding that emotion skews perception of reality. How does it happen? 

Emotions stand for Robin Hood / communist behavior. How does the mind make peace with such "unfairness". Kadai thengai (eduthu vazhi Pilaaiyarukku odaikkardhu) and Rob Peter (to pay Paul).

An emotional person looks at a logical person as so inhuman. How exactly does an emotional person see the other kind?

What creates emotions? I have started to consider the possibility that emotions can be controlled and steered.

Behavior regulation can happen only though an understanding of emotions. Thought, without emotions, cannot regulate behavior.

Now to the reading material. I found each of these links to be interesting. I learned new stuff.

https://www.verywellmind.com/theories-of-emotion-2795717:

In psychology, emotion is often defined as a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_perception: "While the visual system is the means by which emotional information is gathered, it is the cognitive interpretation and evaluation of this information that assigns it emotional value, garners the appropriate cognitive resources, and then initiates a physiological response. This process is by no means exclusive to visual perception and in fact may overlap considerably with other modes of perception, suggesting an emotional sensory system comprising multiple perceptual processes all of which are processed through similar channels."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_marker_hypothesis: 

"When individuals make decisions, they must assess the incentive value of the choices available to them, using cognitive and emotional processes. When the individuals face complex and conflicting choices, they may be unable to decide using only cognitive processes, which may become overloaded. Emotions, consequently, are hypothesized to guide decision-making.

Emotions, as defined by Damasio, are changes in both body and brain states in response to stimuli. Physiological changes (such as muscle tone, heart rate, endocrine activity, posture, facial expression, and so forth) occur in the body and are relayed to the brain where they are transformed into an emotion that tells the individual something about the stimulus that they have encountered. Over time, emotions and their corresponding bodily changes, which are called "somatic markers", become associated with particular situations and their past outcomes.

When making subsequent decisions, these somatic markers and their evoked emotions are consciously or unconsciously associated with their past outcomes, and influence decision-making in favor of some behaviors instead of others."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/somatic-marker-hypothesis: Exceptionally fascinating article:

"The interaction between emotion and cognition takes center stage in the work of Damasio whose “Somatic Marker Hypothesis” has been among the most influential theories of emotion in recent years. According to Damasio (1994, 1999), somatic markers are emotional reactions with a strong somatic component that support decision making, including rational decision making. These reactions are based upon the individual’s previous experiences with similar situations. Somatic markers permit a comparatively fast preselection of the relevant alternatives which are then subjected to a more detailed cognitive processing for the final decision. In doing so, somatic makers increase the efficiency and accuracy of human decision making. Following Damasio, decision making would be almost impossible if detailed cognitive processing of all the available alternatives were necessary.

Damasio refers to several case studies and experiments that seem to show that the inability to experience emotions results in a severe impairment of rational decision-making. In an experiment conducted by Bechara et al. (1997), healthy controls and patients with emotional deficits had to perform a gambling task which required a rational decision for the most advantageous strategy in order to gain as much money as possible. The controls started with an emotional reaction, then they adopted the advantageous strategy before they were finally able to tell what the advantageous strategy was, a few trials later. Patients, by contrast, showed no emotional reaction and continued to use the disadvantageous strategy throughout the experiment, although they also realized what the advantageous strategy was. The experiments support the basic idea underlying the somatic marker hypothesis, namely that rational decision making requires emotional reactions. 

Note that these experiments seem to indicate also that, in contrast to the hypothesis of Oatley & Johnson-Laird (1987), emotional reaction is an ongoing process that does not require unexpected events or specific junctions in the proceeding of our plans. Second, in order to perform the function described, emotions have to be very specific, and third, they have to acquire this specificity independently from cognitive processes: In the above experiment, the cognitive assessment follows only a while after the emotional reaction has set in.

The Somatic Marker HypothesisThe findings reviewed here, and other related observations, have led to the development of a framework that is termed the somatic marker hypothesis. In a nutshell, the theory posits that feelings and emotions give rise to “somatic markers,” which serve as guideposts that help steer behavior in an advantageous direction. Deprived of these somatic markers, VM patients lose the ability to experience appropriate emotional responses to various stimuli and events. We have proposed that the absence of these emotional responses – evidenced, for example, by the missing SCRs in the experiments described above – leads to defective planning and decision-making; this, in turn, leads to socially inept and inappropriate behavior that is characteristic of VM patients. 

Emotional neuroscience and psychophysiological research now challenges the view that rational choice and emotional processing are unrelated or opposed, with evidence for potential beneficial effects of emotion responses on decision making.

Changing moods influence the cognitive weighting of decision parameters, with low mood (and implicitly low autonomic reactivity) linked to a preference for low-risk, low-reward outcomes (Smith and Ellsworth, 1985), while anxiety (typically engendering heightened sympathetic tone) leads to a heightened intolerance of uncertainty (Stern et al., 2009). Together these studies illustrate the integration of autonomic control with cognitive processes underlying decision making. [[Low risk, low reward and heightened intolerance of uncertainty are both same, no? Yet WHILE is used.]]

Given the role of incentive learning in the encoding of reward, it is interesting to consider how the value conferred by this process is retrieved to determine choice performance. Because the choice tests are often conducted many days after incentive learning, in extinction the rat is forced to rely on their memory of specific action–outcome associations and the current relative value of the instrumental outcomes. So how is value encoded for retrieval during this test?
A currently influential theory, the somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994), proposes that value is retrieved through the operation of the same processes through which it was encoded. According to this view, decisions based on the value of specific goals are determined by reexperiencing the emotional effects associated with contact with that goal. With regard to outcome devaluation effects, for example, the theory could not be more explicit:

When a bad outcome connected with a given response option comes to mind, however fleetingly, you experience an unpleasant gut feeling … that forces attention on the negative outcome to which the given action may lead, and functions as an automated alarm signal which says: Beware of danger ahead if you choose the option that leads to this outcome. The signal may lead you to reject, immediately, the negative course of action and thus make you choose between other alternatives.

An alternative theory proposes that reward values, once determined through incentive learning, are encoded abstractly (e.g., X is good or Y is bad and so on) and, as such, from this perspective they are not dependent on the original emotional effects induced by contact with the goal during the encoding of incentive value for their retrieval (see Balleine and Dickinson, 1998a; Balleine, 2005, for further discussion).
We have conducted several distinct series of experiments to test these two hypotheses and, in all of these, the data suggest that after incentive learning, incentive values are encoded abstractly and do not involve the original emotional processes that established those values during their retrieval. [Huh?? Somatic is wrong? Emotions not involved? Just plain memory is it?]] By S.B. Ostlund, ... B.W. Balleine, in Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2008

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/17/science/intensity-of-emotion-tied-to-perception-and-thinking.html: [[fascinating]]

https://silvialisam.com/data-visualization-people-remember-the-feeling-not-the-numbers-db0018dc9998: 

"Source and Perception: If the visualization comes from someone’s trusted media, they are more likely to believe in it. 

People remember the gist, message, and the feeling, not the numbers."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201610/turn-your-critical-and-controlling-inner-voice-calm-mo : Fascinating:

Additional Reading:

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201701/understanding-emotions-and-how-process-them
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201701/the-concept-concept-creep
3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201505/finding-your-emotional-sweet-spot
4. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201402/are-you-depressed-you-want-be
5. http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Emotional_control: 'Emotional control (or Emotional self-regulation , or emotional regulation or regulation of emotion) is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. Functionally, emotional regulation can also refer to processes such as the tendency to focus one's attention to a task and the ability to suppress inappropriate behavior under instruction. Individuals who are emotionally dysregulated exhibit patterns of responding in which there is a mismatch between their goals, responses, and/or modes of expression, and the demands of the social environment."
6. https://www.powerofpositivity.com/research-reveals-can-control-emotions/
7. http://analogcounseling.com/therapy-blog/the-nine-causes-of-emotion
8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-we-control-our-thoughts/
9. http://analogcounseling.com/therapy-blog/why-do-i-do-what-i-do-attachment-styles-explained
10. http://sourcesofinsight.com/your-thoughts-create-your-feelings/
11. https://www.quora.com/Do-thoughts-control-feelings-or-do-feelings-control-thoughts
12. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-minute-therapist/201512/feeling-your-thoughts%3famp

The Other Salman Al Beckett

The usual routine:

1. Denial. It never happened. "We know Khashoggi left the embassy alive." https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/17/17989244/trump-ap-interview-saudi-khashoggi-kavanaugh

2. Deny personal accountability. "I didn't do it. It was some ogues whodunnit (innocent babies can't pronounce "R") ". 
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/15/turkey-jamal-khashoggi-granted-permission-search-saudi-arabia-consulate-istanbul and https://wapo.st/2EyS7PH

3. When evidence gets to be overwhelming, pick some people and hold them responsible after doing what-if analysis. "Who are the cheapest set of men or things you can sacrifice" decides whom you scuttle.

Saudis arrest 18, fire 5 officials after confirming Khashoggi was killed

https://wapo.st/2R0yXTY

And now Kavanaugh is relatively safe because the cartoon has "ensured that Justice has prevailed".

What happened was that the prince said in despair to the knights "won't someone rid me of this turbulent journalist."
And the knights flew to Toykey and brought back the head for the pince.
There endeth the story.

The fiancee may get some reimbursement for her troubles provided that she or someone close to her emigrate to KSA so the royal family can hold the fiancee to ransom.

Cartoon's hotels will continue to be patronized by Saudis. Business will be as usual for USA and KSA. Read: Saudi Arabia not fully cooperating with Khashoggi investigation, Turkish official says

Or will it?
Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated, reversing earlier statement that the journalist had died in fistfight
What's happening here? What exactly does Erdogan have? How come KSA is dancing to his tune? Or was the premeditated murder going to be unauthorized by rogues?

Additional Reading:

1. CIA director briefs Trump on audio purportedly capturing journalist’s killing
2. Long Struggle for Supremacy in the Muslim World

#MeToo Got Molested - Rape Is Not About Consent

This is a very nice article.

https://medium.com/@jtomaszewski/fact-checking-the-metoo-sexual-harassment-allegations-how-many-of-them-are-true-and-fair-e7d89a7f1452

The author clearly is a thinker and not driven by as much by emotions.

What perhaps he doesn't appreciate is that understanding of events, including the accusation of rape, is driven by emotions in some people - the feelers. How such a feeler feels about the event is what determines what he thinks happened. In case of a rape, a feeling of extreme mental discomfort post coitus leads to the belief that rape happened. And the fact, that it was consensual during the act, could be found to be irrelevant in a feeler.
Conversely the feeling of well being post a rape leads to positive feelings towards the rapist (read https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/09/stockholm-syndrome.html).

A very similar thing is echoed by a woman: "Rachel (a pseudonym) reeled off a list of unhappy encounters with would-be romantic partners: sex consented to out of a misguided sense of politeness, extreme acts requested and occasionally allowed, degrading insults as things unfolded — and regrets later. “It’s not like I was being forced into anything or that I feel unsafe, but it’s not … good. And I don’t like how I feel afterwards.” " from Consent is not enough. We need a new sexual ethic.. The title of the article is leading. From Washington Post.

Asking a feeler to look only at facts unemotionally is like asking someone like the author of this blog post to avoid facts and logic and just feel about the event or feel for the person who just joined the #metoo.

The expectation is fine and dandy. But is it sensible?

Addional reading:

1. https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/09/christene-blasey-ford-and-brett.html
2. https://scroll.in/article/897796/wheres-the-proof-and-7-other-frequently-asked-questions-about-metoo-and-their-answers
3. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/4/5/17157240/me-too-movement-sexual-harassment-aziz-ansari-accusation
4. https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/university/how-to-disprove-or-prove-sexual-assault-without-physical-evidence/
5. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-was-sexually-assaulted-heres-why-i-dont-remember-many-of-the-details/2018/09/21/8ce0088c-bdab-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html
6. When We Consent, We Shouldn’t Feel Terrible After, Right?
   
7. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/10/sexual-assault-plot-device-twist-liar-una/544340/
   

Maths Puzzle - Compound Interest Calculation - Housing Loan, Tenure - EMI

I was discussing the housing loan tenure calculation when the loan amount, Compound Interest Rate, EMI (equated monthly installment). 

Work out the tenure showing the principal outstanding at the end of each year.

The spreadsheet below provides a solution:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D_wv710bVzbO86KSoVVjizWQExN8FwYxp4BKNJtx_MA/edit?usp=drivesdk 

This being the auspicious week of Navratri, this puzzle is dedicated to all feelers.

Dirty Words - Avoid Using And Reacting To Them

A friend of mine A told me about her faux pas when she was conversing with her friend B.

B apparently told A that if parents talked to their children in English at home, children tend to pick up the language better and suggested that A also do the same.

A blurted out to B that her (A's) husband's English wasn't good and hence the suggestion couldn't be implemented.

A recounted this to me and said she wasn't feeling good about what she divulged to B.

I said maybe A subconsciously compared her husband's English with her brother's. I suggested that her husband's being poorer might have gnawed at her and hence perhaps her comment came out.

A was shocked at my suggestion and asked me how could I even dream of such an explanation. It was so nasty, she said to me.

I told A that perhaps the word COMPARE had caused her to not understand the import of what I said. Since childhood A had been compared with another child. She hence has an adverse opinion of COMPARE. A vehemently hates the idea of comparison.

Another friend C has an old ailing mother D. D's appetite has been steadily falling and D was also finding it difficult to eat what C cooked. C asked her mother whether she (D) would prefer some other kind of food. D replied that she (D) was not fussy and would eat anything. 

The question was not whether D was fussy. Rather it was about finding a solution to a problem.

Now both A and D reacted in a way which B and C, respectively, didn't anticipate. The issue is that both reacted and gave a response through their S1. A instinctively responded to the dirty word "COMPARE". D reacted to the dirty idea of being fussy. (For an intro into S1, S2 read https://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/thinking-fast-and-slow-daniel-kahnemann.html.)

Essentially the dirty word is a hot trigger which, when we hear, causes to react through our S1. 

B and C have to learn to avoid dirty words while speaking to A and D. 
A and D have to introspect and understand their predilection to respond incorrectly when dirty words are used.
Finally B and C have to introspect and see what "dirty words" exist that they themselves react incorrectly to. A and D have to understand what dirty words they themselves use which may cause someone else to behave incorrectly.

How is all this going to happen?

Reel Estate

There was some talk about demolition of a building with 12 apartments, each of 868 sq ft. The plot area is 3 grounds = 7200 sq ft. The current FSI (Floor Space Index = ratio of total area of all flats to the plot area is currently 1.5. FSI can go up to a maximum of 2.0. This raised the topic of whether the old building could be demolished and new flats constructed. A friend of mine contacted me with the details. I responded with real estate calculations:

Quick back of the envelope calculation:

Currently we have 3 grounds =7200 sq ft.

Total flat area = 12* 868= 10400 sq ft

FSI currently = 10400 / 7200=1.45

With FSI =2, builder can construct total 2*7200=14400sqft

Meaning 14400-10400=3600 extra sq ft.

Assume Rs20000/sq ft rate as the price for a new flat.

Assume  the cost of construction, including demolition, of 14400 sq ft = Rs3000 / sq ft. Total cost for builder =14400*3000=4.3 crore.

Assuming each of us wont have to shell out any money for getting a new flat, the builder needs to recoup at least his total cost of construction = Rs4.3 crore. This means he has to get 4.3crore/20000(rate of new flat per sq ft)= min 2100 sq ft out of the extra 3600 sq ft that we get from new FSI =2.

This means the 12 of us together get 3600-2100=1500 sq ft. 

Which is 1500/12 = 125 sq ft each in the new flat. In essence we will get rid of a 868 sq ft 30 years old flat to get a new 1000sq ft max flat assuming we don't pay extra cash. 

Of course the rates i mentioned are approx. You may use different or more realistic rates for cost of demolition + construction and price per sq ft new flat. But ballpark seems to be about 125 sq ft extra for each us. 

(125 sqft is the max we can get. Builder will need some profit margin. 125 sq ft assumed that the margin was zero.).

Consider also the intangible cost of moving some place else until new flat is ready. I am not sure what the LTCG tax implication would be even if there is no net money receipt. Maybe because the gains are "reinvested" in the new flat there may not be any. 

First Rate Intelligence

I have been following the alleged molestation of Christine Blasey Ford by Brett Kavanaugh (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2018/09/christene-blasey-ford-and-brett.html).

The following is a quote from https://www.wsj.com/articles/tomorrows-elite-lawyers-disavow-due-process-1538695941: "The #BelieveSurvivors mantra is a cornerstone of the campus grievance industry but inimical to everything that a law school should teach. It’s a religious gesture, not a legal one: Such belief is independent of proof, arising out of a pre-existing commitment to a narrative of ubiquitous female abuse by patriarchal white males. The “survivor” label presupposes the conclusion that evidence should establish: that the accused is guilty of an offense. The fact-finder, if there even is one, regards contradictions or holes in a woman’s story as evidence of “trauma” and thus as further corroboration. According to #BelieveSurvivors logic, the Innocence Project, which exists to vacate wrongful convictions and has a presence at law schools across the country, should be disbanded.    Examples abound of student rape allegations arising out of voluntary drunken hookups, following which the self-described victim sought further sexual contact with her alleged rapist. Even if such cases weren’t so common, to presume the guilt of the accused based on an accusation alone would still be an affront to due process. From Tomorrow’s Elite Lawyers Disavow Due Process." 

WSJ is pro-Trump and hence pro-Kavanaugh and hence with respect to the Ford-Kavanaugh  issue it's pro-male.

The link http://theeverygirl.com/why-believing-survivors-is-important/ provides a pro-female view.

Two completely different views. After reading the WSJ article above and then the everygirl link  - former on behalf of men, latter on behalf of victims... It's amazing.. Whose side are you on!! This is an example of not needing to focus on facts but empathizing with men and with women. And not take sides.

As F Scott Fitzgerald said "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." 

Now do you see Scott Fitzgerald is a feeler (and not a thinker)?