“Feeling machines that think?!”
Illustration by Stefan Gasic
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio rocked my world when I read his book, Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. He wrote,
We aren’t thinking machines. We’re feeling machines that think. — Antonio Damasio
This idea was an eye-opener for me because I had long believed that I was “rational” and “a clear thinker.” It turns out that we love to believe we’re rational, clear thinkers when in reality we make decisions emotionally and then rationalize the decision after the fact. Kinda crazy.
Even crazier is how he demonstrates that our rational thinking requires emotional inputs to function. This whole idea is called the “somatic marker hypothesis.” It’s a pretty fascinating read if you’re into the operations of our brains.
Essentially, we assess the incentives of our potential decisions at an emotional level and then we make a decision based on what feels best. Then we sort of pretend that we came to that decision in a logical way.
The Goat in the comic above represents my rational and better thinking. He’s kind of my “inner guru.” He knows better. But most often, I’m more like the woman reading the book and tossing it away because I’m hungry.
FYI, this comic is one of several from my book Mental Prisons.
