On the History of Emotions and Artificial Intelligence: Reshaping Practices of Emotion Research

12/24/21 • 46 min

This is episode #8 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 23rd of December 2021. In today’s show, I am talking to Dr. Rob Boddice, Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, Tampere University, Finland, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, Canada. He is the author or editor of 11 books, most recently ‘Humane Professions’ (2021), ‘Emotion, Sense, Experience’, with Mark Smith (2020), ‘A History of Feelings’ (2019), and ‘The History of Emotions’ (2018). ‘Feeling Dis-Ease in Modern History’, co-edited with Bettina Hitzer, will be published by Bloosmbury in the Spring of 2022. He is currently completing a book called ‘Knowing Pain: A History of Sensation, Emotion and Experience’ for Polity Press.

Professor Boddice’s recent book ‘Emotion, Sense, Experience’, with Mark Smith, published last year, is the focus of this show. We start by addressing the central role of emotions in understanding experience, especially experience in the past. In his book, Rob advocates for a broader dialogue on the treatment of the senses and emotions that would lead to “a more accurate, robust, and ultimately, more meaningful history of human experience” (Boddice & Smith, 2020). And, in doing so, he insists in the reconstruction of context to the maximum extent possible, to understand the practical framework in which experience is produced — otherwise, he says, “we risk transfiguring the feelings of others into one’s own” — imposing the present on the past. But accessing the situated ways of hearing, feeling, touching, sensing is very difficult and has been done so far through a very zoomed in analysis of the context. The best, he believes, is probably to represent that distance between past and present — and emotions should not be kept separate from the senses - especially when working with experiences in the past.

In the second part of the show, we tackle issues related to the role of technology (especially Artificial Intelligence) in shaping our emotion and sensory awareness, and practices of emotion research in the next decade. We close with a discussion on whether historians can and should keep AI ethical and on track. Here is the show.

Show Notes:

What is to say ‘History of X’? (where X can be emotion, feelings, experience) and what is experience, especially felt experience?

How many emotions are out there? How should we study them - in isolation, or as a united whole? Is there a boundary between reason and emotion?

The critical need for an interdisciplinary approach to the history of emotions.

Emotion AI: rather challenging to build, adding to this the recent backlash from the Ethics community on the consequences of AI due to the misunderstanding of the nature of emotions. Would a change in our understanding of emotions lead to the ‘right’ technology?

Immersive Technology: the role of AI in shaping our emotion and sensory awareness, and practices of emotion research in the next decade (or so); Can immersive technology help historians access the past? And, can/should historians keep AI ethical and on track?

For more information on Prof. Boddice’s books:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/emotion-sense-experience/DBE24D02C6367B362884DAC8A002F69F
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/feeling-disease-in-modern-history-9781350228375

Show Notes:

What is to say ‘History of X’? (where X can be emotion, feelings, experience) and what is experience, especially felt experience?

How many emotions are out there? How should we study them - in isolation, or as a united whole? Is there a boundary between reason and emotion?

The critical need for an interdisciplinary approach to the history of emotions.

Previous Episode

The Sense of Smell in Language and Society, and the Hope for a Multi-sensorial Future of Technology

This is episode #7 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 9th of December 2021. In today’s show, I am talking to Mr. Sayantan Ghosh, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Hiralal Mazumdar Memorial College for Women, affiliated with West Bengal State University. He is currently involved in research in the Department of Sociology at Jadavpur University in Kolkata. Mr. Ghosh explores the Sociology of Smell, the study of smell and society, literature and society, Indian social thinkers, philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, study of religion and society. He is a passionate researcher of the sense of smell, hoping for a better future (or, as he likes to say), more fragrant future of humanity. He believes that we, as human beings, depend much more on our senses than we think, particularly on our sense of smell - as we judge and make decisions based on smell.
It is not so much about knowing aspects of the external world, as it is about knowing one’s own self. In our discussion, we touch on many important aspects such as logic and sensations in the Western vs. the Indian traditions, smell and language, smell and its connection to structural inequalities and urban planning, as well as sense impressions as they contribute to perception in people with sensory impairment. We conclude hoping for a multi-sensory future, addressing ways (including technological ones) to bring more awareness to our senses, especially to the sense of smell. Here is the show.
Show Notes:

- The sense of smell: Western view. vs. Indian traditions (Vyasa and Kalidasa): the separation b/w logic and intellect, on one side, and emotion, feeling and sensation on the other.

‘Indryas’: the gate of knowledge

Smell and language: olfactory vocabulary of English and Bengala

The importance of the senses in everyday life (in our occupations, the way we move around, what we eat, and in our intimate moments): How do we interact with different smellscapes and how are these shaped by culture? (i.e., as in Indian culture: food/spices, incenses in temples, etc.)

- The sense of smell and its connection to structural inequalities: the ‘unsmellables’

Smell and the city: urban planning as well as olfactory planning

- Sense impressions and their contribution to perception (e.g., in people with visual impairment, etc.)

The hope for a multi-sensory future: self-awareness and the senses, and ways (including technological ones) to bring more awareness to our senses, especially to the sense of smell
Links:
Professor Ghosh can be reached through his LinkedIn account (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sayantan-ghosh-66106a228/) and his academic webpage (https://hmmcollege.ac.in/index.php/Frontend/faculty?id=22)

Next Episode

The Felt Sense of the Other: Phenomenology and Immersive Technologies

This is episode #9 of the podcast and it’s Thursday, the 13th of January, 2022. Happy New Year, everyone! In today’s show, I am talking to Dr. Allan Køster, a philosopher focussing on applied Phenomenology in investigations of human suffering. He has worked broadly in the field of phenomenological psychopathology, but most recently has done research on the existentiality of grief/bereavement and on COVID-19 patients’ experiences of isolation during admission to intensive care units.

The fascinating topic of discussion today is the felt experience of others, in their absence. Many of us have experienced this. We closed our eyes, relaxed and imagined the loved one’s presence as a warm feeling of love and comfort, their smile, laugh, their touch, even their scent — what the French call ‘sillage’ — and have an acute sense of awareness, a tender and loving feeling. But what about the case where a loved one leaves the physical world and never comes back? This is Allan’s research focus. Our discussion starts with the fundamental definition of phenomenology and how does such a paradigm describe human experience, especially, that of concrete sense of other. Allan believes that this particular kind of felt experience of the other is sensory rather than cognitive — and he calls it “a sensorium of the other”. We discuss the modalities that make out this fundamental sensorium and how these modalities interact to give this sense of embodied felt familiarity. We then shift focus to bereavement and to the abnormal experiences of ICU isolation in COVID patients - discussing how the pandemic has changed the way we interact.

In the second part of the show, we tackle, of course, issues related to the role of technology (esp. immersive technologies) helping one re-experience the felt presence of others. And, of course, we had to close with the ethical implications of such technologies. Here is the show.

Show Notes:
- Definition of Phenomenology; how does it describe human experience- The felt experience of the other as a sensorium (and its modalities)
- Phenomenologically structured interview process in research
- How the pandemic has changed the way we interact
- Bereavement and the abnormal experiences of ICU isolation in COVID patients
- Immersive technologies helping one re-experience the felt presence of others
- The ethical implication of such technologies

Note: Allan Køster's forthcoming book:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.routledge.com/Cultural-Existential-and-Phenomenological-Dimensions-of-Grief-Experience/Koster-Kofod/p/book/9780367568115__;!!DZ3fjg!s7tf5zuTOw85NVxCRtQe42KstNHaMvR4bPiGU0hbAWP3GaPYomU6Pxa16vZYTnvN$