video;

[a_sin_for_him]

[Lust has been drinking. She doesn't usually indulge to the point where mildly tipsy starts heading to drunk, but it's been an emotional week and two drinks turned into three until she's fiddling with her gear with a half empty wine bottle on the table beside her and a full glass in her hand.

Probably not the best time to flip on the record function and put out a general message.]

Why do emotions have to play such a ridiculously large part in daily life? They're nothing but organic chemical reactions. You mix sodium bicarbonate and acetic acid and get fizzing, bubbling carbonic acid. It's the same damned thing, at the most basic level. Chemicals interact with other chemicals and cause a reaction.

But the molecules that give birth to emotional feeling...they're never dormant. They're never inactive. They're always combining and breaking apart and firing off signals that we have no choice but to be ruled by. Human beings are like a single chemical in that way, one that reacts in a most volatile manner to every other substance and stimulus it encounters.

The sheer number of emotions a single person experiences in a single day... it's overwhelming. And like all chemical reactions, prone to change drastically the moment something new is introduced. The simple act of going from content to frightened or angry or even irritated is enough to interfere with daily life.

That seems like a detrimental design flaw, to me.

Comments

[armoredsoul]

[It takes a little bit before Al responds--between The Incident and Ed and Winry leaving, he's rather emotionally sore. Plus he's not sure how angry Lust still is at him over the whole thing.]

...part of it is survival. Adrenaline as part of the fight-or-flight response becomes excitement or anger, and without endorphins humans wouldn't have any incentive to interact with one another or continue the race.

But...even aside from that, if we didn't have any emotions, I don't think you could really say that 'life' exists, at least not the way we think of it. There wouldn't be any variety, it would be...cold. Honestly, I don't think intelligence could even exist at all without emotion along with it.

[a_sin_for_him]

[Lust doesn't bear Al - or anyone, really - any ill will over what happened. It was an unfortunate incident, but no one's real fault.]

Fight or flight and attraction for mating purposes, of course. That's one thing.

But really think about how many things you feel in a single waking period. How the smallest irritation can ruin a mood for the rest of the day. How one minuscule slight from the right person can leave you hurting for weeks. How those feelings permeate everything and effect every single thought you have. Unhappiness of any sort drains the drive, effects thought and decision making, interferes with daily necessities...

One could argue that the removal of feelings leaves nothing but intelligence - pure logic without emotional bias.

[armoredsoul]

I suppose. But I can't see how an intelligence like that would be able to progress the way we have. It's the introduction of all that personal chaos that's driven so much of our society and culture, for both good and bad. If there were no emotions involved, there would probably still be some advancements for the sake of survival, but it would stagnate eventually.

[He offers a small smile.] It'd probably be simpler for everyone that way, I'll admit. You'd sacrifice the concept of 'happiness', but you'd lose 'pain' and 'sadness' as well. Even if I personally wouldn't want that, I understand why a person would.

[a_sin_for_him]

Would it, though? Curiosity can exist with emotional investment. I'd posit that in the absence of emotion, advancement would come easier. Intelligence and curiosity would still drive humanity, and faster without the gum of frustration and obsession and desperation clogging the wheels. Passion and devotion and all of that certainly spur creation, but I think we give them too much credit in the grand scheme of things.

[It's all hypothetical, Lust's simply enjoying the chance at a friendly debate with an equal mind.]

It isn't even a matter of what we would want or not - it's their purpose in existence at all. Their dominance over our drives for survival.