BS: How far does Siri's "emotionlessness" actually go?

[Anne]

I am writing this having read the whole book, so not sure whether it contains any accidental spoilers, but I actually don't think so.

We're supposed to believe that Siri is rather without emotion, simply a watcher of things who is able to report back to whoever without any subjectivity. However, I never really got the feeling that he was without emotions. Sure, he lacked some of the more stronger emotions, but throughout the book it felt more like he was withdrawn or just not that social rather than missing emotions.

I don't know exactly how to put my finger on it, but during the scenes with Chelsea and some of the scenes with members of the crew he seemed pretty sympathetic and actually seemed one of the more sympathetic characters of the crew.

It reminded me a bit of how I would guess some forms of Autism present themselves. Mind you, I have no clue about that other from what I've read and seen, but it's not really having no emotions, but not being able to express them and not really able to connect to other people. He had to learn how to read others the hard way, but he's actually able to have a connection, it just takes longer and may still seem a bit cold.

Maybe I'm misreading something here and it is actually the lack of subjectivity and the conversations Siri has with the other members of the crew that made him seem like someone who actually cared when really it was just his job to ask questions and engage in conversation and he was just really good at faking real interest. Or, put differently, his interest was real and can be interpreted as caring for the others, but it had nothing to do with feelings.

[Halbot42]

It also made me think of Memento where the guy i think named Sammy Jenks had learned to fake the little facial cues that belie memory but only to fake the reaction, he still had no memory to base it on. Siri to me was portrayed as being able to fake the interactions but not understand the underpinning emotional motivations.

[Matthew]

It all comes back to the Chinese box analogy though, and I think the author intentially set thatvagainst thiosw Chelsea flashbacks. Is he experiencing emotions, or is he just appearing to because he is calculating how he is supposed to be reacting.

He does hint at this near the end of the book when he thinks the crew has done it to him.

[Nomad]

I didn't understand Siri to be emotionless, but rather that he didn't have any way to understand his emotions, except through his external processing tools.

[Jlawrence, S&L Moderator]

I agree that there are numerous times where Siri seems to show emotion that goes beyond just faking it. On the other hand, there is that interesting moment near the end when (view spoiler)[after Sarastri's assualt on him, the other crew members just appear as strange packages of meat, making meaningless sounds at him. This could be just from the shock of the attack, but since that attack was meant to strip him of his usual tools, maybe this is how alien all humans would appear to him without his "Chinese Room" tools. Meaning, he possibly has no real connection to humans without those ultimately impersonal processes.

But a counter-example of his possiblly having emotions, but just not being able to understand/express them, there's Chelsea calling him when she was dying, and his *wanting* to say something, even though he couldn't find anything to say (hide spoiler)]

So I think Watts meant it to remain ambiguous, and to also tie into the question of 'what is the nature & value of consciousness and the self?' (I think Watts exploration of that question through this book was interesting, if uneven.)

[Basil]

One of the major themes in the book is "what makes you human?"

My whole comment is a spoiler. Yay tags!

(view spoiler)[I think Watts's whole aim was to really play with the idea of humanity and intelligence and emotional capacity, etc. etc. First you have Siri, who is a Chinese Room - seemingly devoid of emotions, claiming that it's all just strategy. Then you have the realization that the intelligent aliens aren't even self-aware. Sentience is required for emotional capacity (I think). Then you have Siri right at the end saying he's not a reliable narrator. So all those moments when he seemed to have an emotional response could easily have been his Chinese Room sort of working in reverse, projecting what the rules would say were appropriate emotions on himself. (hide spoiler)]

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

There is a lot of attention given to the "outdated" fielof psychology and MDD. But Siri is unreliable and (view spoiler)[ we see hints of severe trauma in his childhood- a non existent father, one who once tried to choke his mother, a mother who takes the lock off the bathroom door and secretly gives him drugs to make him bond her.... He only as half a brain to begin with, poor kid. What if he has suppressed the only emotion he had access to? Or what if that was the part cut out? OR, and I like this theory best, his brain is still learning all the cross and rewiring necessary to not just process and respond logically to emotions, but to feel and acknowledge his own. Maybe the encounter with Jukka jumpstarted a synapse thathadnt connected before that time. It was almost too much for him to handle. (hide spoiler)]