Emotional Communication?

Question

Humans communication is approximately 90% non-verbal, split down into approximately 60% facial emotion and 40% body language. This 90% of communication can take the form of subconscious ques or emotional ques, but we take this communication too much for granted.

For example a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) called Aspergers Syndrome causes the people affected by it to be unable to 'tune' into the non-verbal communication signals that we all send out and as such be unable to connect emotionally with others, and in many situations be awkward or unable to cope in social or personal situations.

So if we take the example of an alien who has come to earth from a planet that has no concept of emotion or sub-conscious communication, How would you explain a emotion to this alien, how would you explain love or fear? Remember this alien knows nothing of emotion or anything like emotion.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Interesting question. I would try to describe it in terms the alien would be familiar with. No feeling. I would speak of perception and action. Fear would be :
1. I perceive(by any sense, in this case vision) something dangerous to me (a meteor over my head, say).
2. My perception causes my body to release certain chemicals. I perceive these chemicals and I'm a aware that I need to take action (run away).
3. Ergo, fear is the result of my brain interpreting danger, and causes me to protect myself.
I realize this is inadequate, but the situation is like explaining color to a person who was born blind. You can't explain color adequately if the person isn't equipped to see it.

Answer 2

alot to consider since u haven't told us the extent of communication we have with said alien. so assuming they have sight, i would first show emotions with my face, such as a smile. assuming they hear i would show emotions with words/sounds/laughter. assuming they can feel a human touch, i would reach and touch thier hand...and so on. u get my drift.

esentially one would have to attempt whatever means necessiary to teach the alien what the sences are, what emotions are, and how we (as civilized humans) apply actions to the given emotion. one could "somewhat similate" communicating with a wild animal for the first time. how u approach each situation, each emotion, each lesson of right and wrong, each reward given when lesson has been learned...all of this has to come with eye contact. having complete and total attention to the alien is vidal.

it is my believe that ALL living/breathing creatures can communicate on far more levels with each other then man has ever begun to explore.

teaching emotion is easy. teaching love is another whole story, but ina nutshell if i was to have an alien i was teaching in my home i dang sure would want it to have a heart. lol but seriously love isnt something u can exactly teach another, but many facets of love u can. such as compassion, desire, devotion, respect, honesty, etc...these things u can teach by example. the old song goes....you've got to give love ....to get love. well thats somewhat true because once u have loved, u somehow become a person who is easier to love. u see better things in urself and in others. aint love grand!

and lastly u ask about teaching fear? hummm, not in my world darlin. i'm raising my alien to be peaceful, loving, thoughtful and kind, and i dont want my baby to think it ever has to FEAR as long as I am near. wouldnt this be a cool world if we could teach our children they dont have to fear? well its a lovely thought. but unfortunately all ide have to do to teach my alien fear is turn on the tv and watch 4 ten mins and i bet my sneekers it would run like *ell back to alienland....talk about fear!!!

Answer 3

Then they wouldn't know English either.

Love and fear, while called emotions, are actually beliefs. "Fear", a feeling, is a belief that something bad will happen. "Love", a feeling, is a belief that one cannot live without another.

These beliefs and the language could not be explained to someone without English or a common language that has the ability to express such abstractions.

If your language doesn't include the term "fear" you are unlikely to experience it.

Answer 4

Alien (evolved) beings would be beyond emotion which is a subjective, judgmental and primitive form of communication; instead they would be telepathic and be able to express feelings emphatically without the need for the primitive sub-conscious need to hide them.