Being You: A New Science of Consciousness

by Anil Seth

To answer the question of what perceptions of emotion and mood are for, we need one more concept from cybernetics – that of an essential variable. Also introduced by Ross Ashby, essential variables are physiological quantities, such as body temperature, sugar levels, oxygen levels and the like, that must be kept within certain rather strict limits in order for an organism to remain alive. By analogy, a desired room temperature would be the ‘essential variable’ for a central heating system. Putting these pieces together, emotions and moods can now be understood as control-oriented perceptions which regulate the body’s essential variables. This is what they are for. The experience of fear I feel as a bear approaches is a control-oriented perception of my body – more