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Life without feelings...

The Ü™

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Hell yes. Then we wouldn't have to bury people when they died. I also wouldn't have to thank the idiot clerk at the 7/11. I mean I don't anyway, but.. there wouldn't be that annoying obligation.

We wouldn't have to stop at a traffic accident. Just keep on going. Life without emotions would not be boring, because we wouldn't be able to feel bored.

We're all dog shit in the end anyway. Emotions are illusory.

And we wouldn't have to pretend to feel sorry about those assholes who got shot at VT.

If you didn't go there, or have a friend or family member who got shot, you were pretending. And it's annoying. Stop.

Agreed.
 

heart

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I think that's what Uberfuhrer means -- there wouldn't have to be a point. Sort of like living unconditionally. A point's existence, or lack thereof, would not bother a person without emotion, or, over time, a point could be derived in some other way, without necessiating access to emotion.

Given that I probably wouldn't be in a position to care if I were to be entirely emotionless, I don't mind either way.

I would destroy myself before I would allow someone to turn my body into a automation like that. The very idea is an anathema to me.
 

Lateralus

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If you were given the option to have a life without having emotions, would you choose it? Would you be willing to throw out happiness if it meant getting rid of sadness? Why or why not?
Not a chance. I enjoy emotions, even the bad ones.
 

GZA

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Hell no! I love emotions, the good and the bad ones. Just as any great drama has comedy, or any great comedy has drama, a great life requires veriety and variation. No emotions would suck like Caddyshack 2. Zing!
 

Anonymous

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It would only approach an even trade if you got nearly unlimited knowledge in return, and even then, maybe not.
 

Athenian200

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It would be different, certainly. I'd be willing to give such a life a chance, although I don't think I'd prefer it to life with emotions (of course, preferring something would be impossible in such a scenario). I don't see how I could find it miserable if I couldn't feel misery. I would just continuously observe the way things interacted and make inferences about them, but not feel affected by them.

The only reason I couldn't experience it for long is that I would no longer wish to take any particular action, because no outcome would seem better than any other outcome. So I would lose my motivation to manipulate outcomes, including those that affect my survival, such as finding food.

The only thing that might keep such a situation sustainable is if you don't consider curiosity to be an emotion... because that alone would still provide enough motivation for me to pursue my own survival. Because I would want to stay around long enough to see how things changed, and understand them.
 

MerkW

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To be honest, I probably wouldn't want emotions to suddenly cease to exist.

However, I am quite certain that the world would be a much better place if emotion never existed.

No one would have to worry about people's feelings or morals, because they wouldn't exist. Everyone would make purely rational decisions.
 

JustDave

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Is ambition a product of feelings? If yes then I believe feelings are important. Because (hypothetically) without ambition we might not have war but we might also not have the drive to find the cure for AIDs.
 

lastrailway

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I'd say I wouldn't choose to live without emotions, but mainly cause I've live all my life till now with emotions and I am aware of the fact that, maybe some (or even most) of them suck, but there are some that are fine.
On the other hand, if I had be born totally emotionless, I'd probably wouldn't feel that I am missing something, merely cause I'd have never experienced it. Likewise, I might be thinking that flying is fine, but it doesn't bother me the least that I do not have the ability to fly, since it's not an option and I don't cannot really comprehend how flying is like.
Now, if they told me that I could tomorrow chose to get ride of all emotions, I don't know what would my answer be. My whole mindset up to now is built with having emotions. Would I be able to adapt? I don't know.
 

alcea rosea

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Person without emotions or feelings is not a healthy one.
Feelings and emotions make us what we are.
 

Athenian200

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Person without emotions or feelings is not a healthy one.
Feelings and emotions make us what we are.

But why would you assume that the way we are is the best way to be, having never experienced an alternative?

The really interesting thing is, I think that if you kept fear of death/discomfort, curiosity, and a dislike of inaccuracy or inconsistency, while doing away with every other feeling, most people would change very little on the surface.

I wonder if most people's resistance to even looking at this idea is primarily due to fear of change?
 

heart

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Apparenty emotions serve us or we wouldn't have developed them (or been given them by the creator, depending on your view)
 

JustDave

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That's a good point. Please correct me if I am wrong but aren't emotions a byproduct of higher order thinking?
 

wildcat

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If you were given the option to have a life without having emotions, would you choose it? Would you be willing to throw out happiness if it meant getting rid of sadness? Why or why not?
To be rid of sadness is to increase sadness around oneself.
 

CzeCze

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I like Night's answer.

I was going to say, heelllll no

Not being able to feel emotion is basically like being severely debilitatingly depressed. You feel 'nothing'. It's painful. It's existential angst to the nth degree.

Feelings are to your psyche and ego what nerve endings are to your body. For pleasure and pain and all different gradations, it's how you react and interact with life and the world. It's how you know you're alive (seriously, medical and military folks will tell you the second you stop being able to feel anything in your body is the second you know you're fucked)

I actually wish I were more open to my emotional unseen "N" life and able to take in and experience all the highs and lows of emotion without blacking out.
 

mooky

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Ummmmm........................My husband had a car accident yesterday, and he could very easily not have been here today. I think had that been the case, I would happily chose to have my emotions cut out, a brief glimpse of how that would feel (when I saw the car) was horrid.

But then nor would I feel the joy in my kid’s achievements or the warm feeling when they spontaneously give me a hug.

All in all I’m a happy person, and I think, for me, feelings are a positive thing.

But I can see that some people; maybe people who have been abused of suffered losses would benefit from having them cut off. Because who hasn’t been brought low by their own emotions at sometime; maybe a on off button would be good J

Having said that though, I think all the most horrendous crimes have been committed by people who lack empathy. After all if you can’t put yourself in another persons shoes, and feel what they are feeling what would stop you doing horrid things to others?
 

Valiant

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I was emotionless for a couple of years, caused by a lot of major factors.
Dana is right, it is torture in it's own kind of way. Like a dark void where the soul slowly melts away. No, when I think about it now, that was without the shadow of a doubt the worst years of my life. I don't know if I was a psychopath or anything, but my thinking was radically different and lacking even basic emotion and empathy for almost everyone, the only person I cared about back then was my brother.
What changed it was me getting away from my father, my old class and teachers, getting new friends... Then I was kind of semi-bad for a couple of years until I met my first love. Then stuff changed a lot in my head and it kind of made me human again. Stayed that way though i've lost that love, but it was life-changing and I will always remember that. Now i've found love elsewhere, and I feel good about just about everything.

Life without emotions sucks badly.
 
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