Facets of Emotions in Humans and Artifacts

During the last years it has become more and more clear that “the rational” and “the emotional” do not exclude each other, on the contrary, it is e.g. difficult for a person to make rational decisions if her or his brain structures responsible for experiencing emoions are not properly functioning. Emotions have therefore become more important in artificial intelligence, e.g. for improving rational decisions by reducing the search space, for increasing the acceptance of AI-programs by recognizing emotions of the user and by processing and expressing emotions, and by giving computergenerated actors (e.g. in edutainment or videogames) a “character” by developing albeit simplified personality models. In this presentation, we would like to first explain the motivation for this work, and then give an overview on how emotions are structured, their functionality analysed (or assumed) and, sometimes, already modelled, from different standpoints, e.g. the brain researcher, the cognitive scientist, the computer program and intaface developer, and the computer game developer. Finally, we will describe two potential impacts of emotions research, both on our self-view, namely the potential relation of emotions to consciousness and new ethical problems.