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[Egan_BW]

There comes a time in ones life where one must gaze deep into the abyss and say "yeah, same"

[Ulfarr]

I’m not sure if this counts as a sad, but it isn’t an upset or a happy

I remember thinking, what do I feel? The answer I got was nothing, empty, hollow. I am not sad about much, or mad, or particularly happy, just blank. I don’t think this is normal

Some day, completely out of the blue, you are going to realise that you feel. You might feel happy or melancholic, you might feel anger or calm, sad or excited and you might or might not be able to pinpoint the reason behind those feelings. Sometimes you might just not feel anything at all. I don't think that we are supposed to constantly feel something and to me that seems like a normal thing.

[Iduno]

I’m not sure if this counts as a sad, but it isn’t an upset or a happy

I remember thinking, what do I feel? The answer I got was nothing, empty, hollow. I am not sad about much, or mad, or particularly happy, just blank. I don’t think this is normal

Emotions aren't even real. I can only think of 3 sets of feelings people can have:

1) Intoxicated/Sober
2) Tired/More Tired/Extremely Tired/I just watched a spider run across the wall and then melt
3) Hungry/Full

Thank you for listening to my TED talk.

[TamerVirus]

My default state is apathy.
I mean, who cares?
I certainly don’t

[hector13]

I wasn’t having a bad day entirely of my own making, but then I thought of the sandwich I could have when I got home and felt better.

Not an actual sandwich, just the potential for a sandwich, because I’m home now and can’t be bothered making it.

[Iduno]

I wasn’t having a bad day entirely of my own making, but then I thought of the sandwich I could have when I got home and felt better.

Not an actual sandwich, just the potential for a sandwich, because I’m home now and can’t be bothered making it.

I have heard that having small snacks around that will not fill (but aren't so good you'd want to eat a lot of them) you up can give you the energy to make a real meal.

I haven't really tried it, but I have eaten 2/3 of a bag of chips as supper because apathy. It sounds like good advice, anyway. Someone should try it and let us know if it works.

[Kagus]

My default state is apathy.
I mean, who cares?
I certainly don’t

Are ignorance and apathy really on the rise? I don't know and I don't care.

I’m not sure if this counts as a sad, but it isn’t an upset or a happy

I remember thinking, what do I feel? The answer I got was nothing, empty, hollow. I am not sad about much, or mad, or particularly happy, just blank. I don’t think this is normal

Some day, completely out of the blue, you are going to realise that you feel. You might feel happy or melancholic, you might feel anger or calm, sad or excited and you might or might not be able to pinpoint the reason behind those feelings. Sometimes you might just not feel anything at all. I don't think that we are supposed to constantly feel something and to me that seems like a normal thing.

There are of course variations, and a great many feelings end up going "under the radar" so to speak, but there is also a difference between not having particularly strong feelings, and having a strong feeling of emptiness.

All depending on how much it bothers you, and how long it lasts, may want to check up on it. The feeling of emptiness and a perceived inability to feel normal emotions are both classical symptoms of depression, and there's a high incidence of depression among people with Asperger's/on the autism spectrum.

But there's no sense feeling bad about something just because you think it's not normal; if the feelings you described don't inherently bother you, then there's little point in being worried about it.

[Naturegirl1999]

My default state is apathy.
I mean, who cares?
I certainly don’t

Are ignorance and apathy really on the rise? I don't know and I don't care.

I’m not sure if this counts as a sad, but it isn’t an upset or a happy

I remember thinking, what do I feel? The answer I got was nothing, empty, hollow. I am not sad about much, or mad, or particularly happy, just blank. I don’t think this is normal

Some day, completely out of the blue, you are going to realise that you feel. You might feel happy or melancholic, you might feel anger or calm, sad or excited and you might or might not be able to pinpoint the reason behind those feelings. Sometimes you might just not feel anything at all. I don't think that we are supposed to constantly feel something and to me that seems like a normal thing.

There are of course variations, and a great many feelings end up going "under the radar" so to speak, but there is also a difference between not having particularly strong feelings, and having a strong feeling of emptiness.

All depending on how much it bothers you, and how long it lasts, may want to check up on it. The feeling of emptiness and a perceived inability to feel normal emotions are both classical symptoms of depression, and there's a high incidence of depression among people with Asperger's/on the autism spectrum.

But there's no sense feeling bad about something just because you think it's not normal; if the feelings you described don't inherently bother you, then there's little point in being worried about it.

Thanks, I suppose it’s more of not feeling strong emotions rather than feeling emptiness, I just thought that people are supposed to feel emotions throughout the day and thst not feeling an emotion would be odd

[Kagus]

Emotions are the body's call to action (at least according to... Hume? I believe?). If there's no perceived reason to be called into action, there's no need for an emotion.

Now, that's not to say that the system for defining what constitutes a reason for action doesn't get massively confused, of course... In fact, most of us go around in some state of signal disarray most of the time. But the general concept absolutely allows for gaps in the emotional timeline.

[Loud Whispers]

Emotions are the body's call to action (at least according to... Hume? I believe?). If there's no perceived reason to be called into action, there's no need for an emotion.

Now, that's not to say that the system for defining what constitutes a reason for action doesn't get massively confused, of course... In fact, most of us go around in some state of signal disarray most of the time. But the general concept absolutely allows for gaps in the emotional timeline.

That's why boredom is one of the most underrated emotions. It's a call to action in response to too much of nothing

[Reelya]

Yeah I heard about that idea a few years ago. A being who is "never bored" will never actually do anything because they're happy to just sit there.

There was talk about which quality set us apart from all the other animals, in the first place. The ability to be bored might be one of the more important ones.

EDIT: one case in point is that it's been observed that entrepreneurs have a high probability of also having ADHD. So creativity and restlessness/boredom go together. This is probably not a mistake: we evolved to be restless, so ADHD is a side-effect of a desirable trait.

[Dunamisdeos]

Cats and Dogs can be bored. Apes can too.

I suppose there is likely an intelligence threshold.

[Naturegirl1999]

What if we are not the only animals who think they are superior to other animals because of the ability to think they are? Maybe we aren’t as different as we think we are. Ants, termites, and the ambrosia beetle have domesticated fungi, some species of ants farm aphids.

[Reelya]

Yeah, but they're not able to choose whether they do that. Big difference. Ants come pre-programmed in how to do those things. To say that's the same as agriculture is bullshit. It's not the same.

It's a completely different category of phenomena, to tell the truth, and any superficial similarity to human agriculture is just projection. Ants are pre-programmed to take those certain actions to farm the aphids. We are not. there is no built-in code in a human that tells them how to farm wheat or chickens. Most likely, the ant-farming is just a re-purposing of built-in ant programming for tending to larva. They just see the aphids as a different type of larva, not a farm animal: so the "farming" by ants originally came about due to a point-mutation which caused caretaker ants to confuse aphids with larva. The fact that it was beneficial was just a fluke.

The fact that this resembles deliberate human farming is only superficial, in the same sense that the sun's rays being refracted by the upper atmosphere explaining why the sky is blue doesn't mean that all blue things are explainable by the same explanation. Things are colored blue for different reasons, even though the outcome is the same in all cases. Ants farming aphids and humans farming crops/animals both happen for completely different reasons and by entirely unrelated mechanisms. It's like saying the sun isn't special because it's round and apples are also round, and apples aren't special.

What we definitely do differently is "memetic evolution" vs "genetic evolution".

I can come up with an idea for a snail farm, and I can tell you about it, make up how it's going to work, then you implement those ideas. Ants can't do that.

[Dunamisdeos]

In that case, choice is what sets us apart.