Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
Is there any way to become a 100% robot, who doesn't feel anything except whatever extremely narrow and specific range of emotions they're programmed to feel?

I'm 90% robot. The 10% that isn't is like the chafing spot on the inside of a shoe. How do I get rid of this? Is it even possible? I've become more and more robot as I've aged, although I'm only 28 currently. Is just waiting the answer? Will I completely turn into metal at age 40? Or age 50? Any way to speed this up? Or will there always be that chafing spot of humanity that will torment me for the rest of my days?

I already have some ideas but I'd like to hear your thoughts as well.
 
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signifying nothing

signifying nothing

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Sep 13, 2020
2,553
I'd pursue the things that still give you emotional response as much as you can until your mind realises that these too are too painful to feel and cuts you off from them. It's basically trying to purposefully traumatise the last emotional parts of you.
 
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aneurysm

aneurysm

Mage
Jan 27, 2019
584
For me, it's in acquiring knowledge. The more I understand certain systems in the world (like finance, etc.), the more indifferent I become as a person.

So, I'd advise to keep on digging and acquiring/seeking always more knowledge and deep understanding, I think it's the most reliable way to get rid of one's soul
 
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T

TwinBranch

New Member
Feb 2, 2021
3
For me to feel like a robot, I take the prescription drugs my psychiatrist gave me (Venlafaxine and Risperidone). And both of those drugs I take on the higher end of doses. When I take those I lost almost all emotion. But when I'm on them, also a part of me knows how sad and depressing it is, but I still don't feel any sadness on them
 
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stygal

stygal

low-wage worker
Oct 29, 2020
1,732
I wish I could be more robotic as well and shut off my anxiety and fears (and sometimes sadness).
I'm still feeling waay too much.
Especially since it's not needed anymore.
 
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BeansOfRequirement

BeansOfRequirement

Behind the guilt was compassion
Jan 26, 2021
5,747
Good answers so far. Maybe realizing how and why the other 90% aren't there will help you out. I'm guessing that you think an average person has around 90-100% of this "humanity". They get scared when they hear of a terrorist attack on the news, they get sad when their grandfather dies. They get angry when someone throws trash on the street, they smile when they hear their friends had a baby. If I understand correctly, this would constitute emotions or humanity. You don't have those, but there are more specific situations that get you... anxious, perhaps? Maybe you have the inclination to get revenge even though you don't benefit from it except emotionally. Maybe you get jealous of other people's skill, wealth or recognition.

You don't want to lose the desire for wealth and comfort. You don't want to stop caring about the safety of your person. You don't want to lose your sense of humor or the ability to get lost in fantasy. These are also parts of humanity and emotionally driven; but I am correct in that you want to keep these, no? What, then, sets these apart from the 10% (5%, in my view, since you want to keep 5%) that you don't want to drag you down anymore? They don't require dependence on others aside from contracts. Imagine yourself in a situation where you were completely dependent on someone. Thinking about it feels bad, right? That might be why that 90% is gone, the interdependence involved in making an other's business your own is too painful. This is an okay theory, I hope, hand on a hot stove kind of thing.


The remaining 10(5)% probably isn't too hard to deal with. A chafing spot. You might never feel the urgency to get rid of it since you're obviously able to deal with it. Motivation is required to get rid of hard-wired human instincts like being obsessed with what others think of you, how other people in your environment are feeling, and so on. If the motivation isn't there and you haven't received strong genetic variations or trauma there's not really a reason why it would happen. As with developing muscles, the re-training of the emotional complex does not happen by "dropping and doing twenty" haphazardly.

I still think it's very possible to get rid of emotional reactions that you don't want to have. Unless a part of you is longing for connection and honesty and you actually don't enjoy a cold and robotic life deep down, with some practice (or as you mentioned, simple passage of time) this looks like a possible task.

I can share a personal example of my own deadening. Two emotional reactions that I have and don't want to have are anxiety about the future (it has decreased a good bit since I've decided on the field I'm going to be working in) and the need for what I until recently thought was physical intimacy (turns out it was actually emotional intimacy / communicational intimacy). The more specific emotional response to the unmet need being sadness. Both of these were stronger pulls five years ago and have been getting reduced with time. The reason being that they cause pain, if you do not act on the impulse (secure a future plan ASAP, get a girlfriend ASAP) then the brain will eventually devalue the emotional responses as less important. Like when doing aerobic exercise or meditating, once you adapt to the discomfort the feelings of aversion move to the back of your mind.

As other posters have pointed out, seeking out both understanding and actual experience of your trigger points will accelerate the numbing process. Exposure (at least accompanied by structure and wisdom) works. Now, what if the 5% are hard or impossible to bring out or experience? What if we don't really know what they are, even? We have a feeling that we're not robotic enough, we're suffering a bit, we're on edge unnecessarily, everything isn't just smoothly driving us into the grave like we'd hoped.

Then I propose going meta and handling these emotions as glitches. We're not robots, after all, we're at best some very early version of the Detroit: become human androids. This means that we're always going to have some bugs and broken parts, now what's the robotic way of dealing with our lack of inanimation? Acknowledging it and correcting trajectories for margins of error, not reacting to the reactions. This works even if we have no idea of why we feel some way, even. "Fatigue? I have enough physical energy to hit the gym anyways since I've been eating well." "Envy? Should I steam or boil the broccoli?"
 
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saltshaker

saltshaker

salt shaker, rule breaker
Jan 29, 2021
402
I did this in highschool as a necessity after being bullied a LOT. I thought i legit didn't have feelings in my graduating year. I probably had a similar psychological profile to those columbine kids. (Hooray for gun control, seriously no amount of pills or therapy could have fixed me then.)

Then after half a decade of adulthood I became a very emotional adult, turns out all that suppression shielded me in a way but I don't think i really learned how to handle my emotions. They ended up ruling me.

These days I think i'm being pulled back to the centre of this spectrum. Where i feel emotion but can process it somewhat normally.
 
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Lmd

Lmd

Elementalist
Jul 12, 2020
812
How deep it's that 10%? because digging can turn it in more than a 50% I'm not and old person but I don't think it would become easier in the future. Live with that, try to turn it in dumb wishes. People I know who are over 40 years think they can solve everything with money, sex or caring for someone for five minutes so I think the more mediocre the easier it is.
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
Thanks for your thoughts. I realise I wasn't entirely clear on what I mean by robot. By robot, I don't mean being numb, emotionless or dead inside. That's not a desirable state to be in. My ideal robotic state is the ability to control your emotions without being vulnerable to outside influences.

Sort of like buddhist monks. We're not monks and don't have access to the methods and environments that allows monks to cultivate this ability, so if we have the same ambition, we have to make up our own ways to move in that direction. It's a lot harder to become a master of self-discipline in a modern city than in mountain monastery. Our spiritual resources are lesser and the obstacles we must overcome much greater.

So we can't really become monks. The closest thing is to become robots. Similar self-control but without the spiritual component. Just an unfeeling body loaded with our own internal "software", so that our lives can be guided by that software.

To be human is to be part of humanity, while a robot is autonomous. That is the difference. I guess besides robot I can call it also call it "alien". An alien may have its own thoughts and emotions, and it may walk among humans, but it will feel no solidarity with them.
 
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Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
21,037
My ideal robotic state is the ability to control your emotions without being vulnerable to outside influences.

But that doesn't describe robots or robotic states at all, at least not any robots that we have now. Robots even with super advanced AI do not have any emotions, they are merely reflections of our own emotions that they simulate for our own amusement. Basically, they don't control their emotions because there aren't any to control. I suppose one way to achieve this would be to find out which part of the brain is responsible for emotions and destroy it, it's happened to some people before. They also lost their ability to care about anything though because caring is tied to emotions so they still became numb and dead inside as you described.

Other than that, I think you'd just have to wait until the technology to literally become a robot becomes available through cybernetics or something wacky like that. Even so, I don't think robotic is the right term you're looking for. If you want to just be able to control your emotions there are a multitude of techniques and philosophies out there though none of them can claim a 100% success rate. There's no guarantee that you'll never lose control in every situation but you can try to prepare for as many situations as possible either through exposure or whatever other tactics there are. Hope this helps.
 
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signifying nothing

signifying nothing

-
Sep 13, 2020
2,553
My ideal robotic state is the ability to control your emotions without being vulnerable to outside influences.
Vulcan then.
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
But that doesn't describe robots or robotic states at all, at least not any robots that we have now. Robots even with super advanced AI do not have any emotions, they are merely reflections of our own emotions that they simulate for our own amusement. Basically, they don't control their emotions because there aren't any to control. I suppose one way to achieve this would be to find out which part of the brain is responsible for emotions and destroy it, it's happened to some people before. They also lost their ability to care about anything though because caring is tied to emotions so they still became numb and dead inside as you described.
I agree that robot may not have been the best word, but please see the end of my post. I describe what I mean there.
Other than that, I think you'd just have to wait until the technology to literally become a robot becomes available through cybernetics or something wacky like that.
Would be great. That's one of my favorite fantasies and something I often dream about.
what do you mean by self control? Do you have a specific example?
In this context the "human" is the vulnerable creature. Humans will impulsively leap into fires over all kinds of things. Romantic relationships are probably the best example. It's human to need them, and it's human to be damaged by them. A robot or an alien doesn't have the need, and so it also doesn't have the vulnerability. I can't become a literal robot or alien, but I can get into the mindset of one, which requires self-control and self-direction of a sort.

I hope this explains a little; I don't really want to get much more into the philosophy of it.
 
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aneurysm

aneurysm

Mage
Jan 27, 2019
584
In this context the "human" is the vulnerable creature. Humans will impulsively leap into fires over all kinds of things. Romantic relationships are probably the best example. It's human to need them, and it's human to be damaged by them. A robot or an alien doesn't have the need, and so it also doesn't have the vulnerability. I can't become a literal robot or alien, but I can get into the mindset of one, which requires self-control and self-direction of a sort.

I hope this explains a little; I don't really want to get much more into the philosophy of it.

you told us about your workaholism, but maybe you still have too much free time. I recommend to work even more so you can't think about any of this anymore. I heard about people in japan working until they have a heart attack, why not work until you break
 
Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
you told us about your workaholism, but maybe you still have too much free time. I recommend to work even more so you can't think about any of this anymore.
I wish I could, but my body has limits. I can't work more than I already do. There's no physical or mental capacity.
 
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Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
21,037
I agree that robot may not have been the best word, but please see the end of my post. I describe what I mean there.
In this context the "human" is the vulnerable creature. Humans will impulsively leap into fires over all kinds of things. Romantic relationships are probably the best example. It's human to need them, and it's human to be damaged by them. A robot or an alien doesn't have the need, and so it also doesn't have the vulnerability. I can't become a literal robot or alien, but I can get into the mindset of one, which requires self-control and self-direction of a sort.
I think I sort of get it now. An alien however might still have need for humanlike romantic relationships if it's beneficial to their species. Maybe there are some out there that only reproduce and never see each other again after the fact, either way it's still vital for them and they may have some emotions that compel them to do so even if they're temporary.

Maybe to become more like them you have to find yourself some purpose to sink yourself into where you don't have to interact with human emotions at all. I don't exactly know how this could even be done but remember robots are always built with a specific set of instructions and those instructions are usually the reason they aren't built with emotions in the first place.

Again I have no idea how feasible it could be for you to just drop everything and devote yourself to a life where emotions don't matter because ironically your emotions might one day even get in the way if anything goes wrong. A robot usually just glitches or shuts down to reboot when faced with an inability to complete its task, a human has to deal with it sometimes for the rest of their lifespan...
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
I think I sort of get it now.
Not quite. You're getting distracted by the literal meanings of the words. The state of modern robot technology and alien biology are beside the point. What I'm trying to convey is "human" vs "not human". I'm looking to see to what extent I as a human can go against the grain of human nature and still have some prospect of a contented life.
 
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Dr Iron Arc

Dr Iron Arc

Into the Unknown
Feb 10, 2020
21,037
Not quite. You're getting distracted by the literal meanings of the words. The state of modern robot technology and alien biology are beside the point. What I'm trying to convey is "human" vs "not human". I'm looking to see to what extent I as a human can go against the grain of human nature and still have some prospect of a contented life.
Maybe, but I just don't believe it will be as productive to only theoretically try to become inhuman if you aren't willing to consider renouncing literal aspects of your own humanity. No matter how far you try to escape human nature you can always be brought back with a single trigger wherever it may lie but maybe that's just my limited human thinking talking.
 
Sensei

Sensei

剣道家
Nov 4, 2019
6,336
I also dream of becoming unfeeling and machinelike. The question is, would the death of my feelings mean the death of my ego? If so, is it worth the price?
 
Josh007

Josh007

The number zero is feeling lonely...
Nov 30, 2020
188
Numbness is a feeling as is emptiness. Give yourself the chance to feel, it's not so bad.
 
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Disappointered

Disappointered

Enlightened
Sep 21, 2020
1,283
it's kind of like wishing to be dead...i second that wish...
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
I also dream of becoming unfeeling and machinelike. The question is, would the death of my feelings mean the death of my ego? If so, is it worth the price?
What is the value of ego?
Numbness is a feeling as is emptiness. Give yourself the chance to feel, it's not so bad.
This is not quite what I'm talking about. By "robot" I don't mean somethng entirely unfeeling since that's not a realistic ambition. I want to narrow my range of emotions down to the absolute minimum, and controllable like a software. And no, I don't want numbness and emptiness in that range, since those feelings are not pleasant or desirable in any way.
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
To most people everything, even if they've chosen to live in a middle-class clone community.
I won't pretend to understand. The more I feel my ego fade away the happier I become.
 
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Sensei

Sensei

剣道家
Nov 4, 2019
6,336
The more I feel my ego fade away the happier I become.

Same here. What I mean is that we're a very small minority. To most people, the thought of a fading ego is basically a nightmare.
 
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DocNo

DocNo

whatever
Oct 30, 2020
1,750
as having tried to be a robot for 20 years and deactivating my emotion chip most of the time it did lead me to emptiness and meaninglessness. didn't work for me.
and having been suicidal three times in the last 10 years i guess i am gonna try now to become less of a robot. had already one very painfull experience and i am still here and feel more lively than in 20 years. still not sure if it leads me anywhere but so didn't being a robot.
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
as having tried to be a robot for 20 years and deactivating my emotion chip most of the time it did lead me to emptiness and meaninglessness. didn't work for me.
and having been suicidal three times in the last 10 years i guess i am gonna try now to become less of a robot. had already one very painfull experience and i am still here and feel more lively than in 20 years. still not sure if it leads me anywhere but so didn't being a robot.
I understand. I don't think that turning off the emotion chip is the right way to go. I notice that I'm having trouble describing what I mean by "robot". It doesn't mean being completely emotionless as that is not possible anyway. Think more in fanciful terms, like robots from Star Wars. They had personalities and "emotions" of their own, but were not emotionally dependent on being part of a social fabric in the ways humans are.
 
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DocNo

DocNo

whatever
Oct 30, 2020
1,750
I understand. I don't think that turning off the emotion chip is the right way to go. I notice that I'm having trouble describing what I mean by "robot". It doesn't mean being completely emotionless as that is not possible anyway. Think more in fanciful terms, like robots from Star Wars. They had personalities and "emotions" of their own, but were not emotionally dependent on being part of a social fabric in the ways humans are.

mhm. sounds a bit contradictory.

but it reminded me a bit of my thought when i feel low that i sometimes wish that for example the workers in the supermarket are robots. cause i always felt somehow judged or rated or stuff like that. i was tired of this human interaction.
 
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Makko

Makko

Iä!
Jan 17, 2021
2,430
mhm. sounds a bit contradictory.

but it reminded me a bit of my thought when i feel low that i sometimes wish that for example the workers in the supermarket are robots. cause i always felt somehow judged or rated or stuff like that.
They don't have self-checkout where you live? I'm looking forward to all the service workers getting replaced by robots. Everyday tasks will be so much simpler.
 
DocNo

DocNo

whatever
Oct 30, 2020
1,750
They don't have self-checkout where you live? I'm looking forward to all the service workers getting replaced by robots. Everyday tasks will be so much simpler.
nope. here it's not very common. they have some shops in the big cities but even there it is not that common.
 

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