A friend and colleague recently typed this question into Grammarly AI supported search engine, and out came this explanation:
“Emotional Logic is a way of understanding how our emotions influence our thoughts, behaviors, and decisions. It suggests that emotions are not just irrational impulses, but rather have a logic of their own that can be understood and harnessed. By recognizing the emotional logic behind our actions, we can gain greater insight into our own behavior and the behavior of others. This can be especially helpful in improving our relationships and communication skills. Emotional Logic is not about suppressing or denying our emotions, but rather about learning to work with them in a more productive and effective way.”
Apart from the American English spelling, as he said to me, this could have been Trevor Griffiths speaking. The potential for AI to assist learning is clearly there. Can that develop moral inner strength also to harness that learning into sustainable social development? Fortunately, the answer is probably yes if lessons are learnt from some pioneering work in the USA. TraumaAWARE Care (www.awareconsulting.org) has developed conversational groups that provide opportunities for traumatised people to support each other’s personal development and leave behind the harmful impacts of past hurts. This is a major step on from simply informing people about the mental and biological effects of accumulating traumatic experiences. It is a practical way forward that leaves individualism behind, and moves on into a future that recognises how human beings are built to thrive in networks of accepting relationships, not manipulative ones. It’s not all about control. It’s about listening and hearing in an adaptable and responsive way with some warmth of compassionate mutuality.
The other half of Artificial Intelligence is robotics. People are going to lose jobs. How are they to find meaningful occupation in a future culture that has shifted its value system into something where people can no longer be judged according to their employment status or income? Watch out for virtual reality! Danger lurks there! The sustainable answer is to move in the opposite direction, towards enjoying our sensory embodiment and connection through nature into our social ecology. Working together on the land and in creative arts can no longer be devalued as ‘menial’. It needs elevating conversationally to the highest attainment of humanity at leisure. Even where poverty limits the scope of attainment, to nurture growth and beauty honours (honors) our embodiment as the living heartbeat of nature.
I personally equate relatedness with spirituality. I believe human spirituality is the inner drive to make a Big Picture of life that makes sense of our inner heart nature to connect with others through shared ecologies, which extend beyond our local space and time. Emotions are our physical responses to the changing qualities of our relationships. Our depth relatedness moves us from within, not just by external pressure. Therefore, our emotional experience is the meeting place of our physical and spiritual natures. Understanding the logic of how one emotion can transform constructively into another to move relatedness in life-enhancing ways is core to building a sustainable future. E-motion is energy in motion. We shall need to increasingly value and relax comfortably into our moving connection with the social ecology, if we are to thrive in the new AI and robotics era. Fentanyl is NOT the answer to disappointments or distress. TraumaAWARE groups are part of the path to find answers.
So, what is Emotional Logic? It is nothing less than the walkable path to help groups of people make this cultural transition into a social ecology future.
