---
name: Emotion
slug: emotion
type: runtime process
status: running
version: 4.2.1
released: "approximately 500,000,000 BCE"
maintainer: evolution (uncontacted)
dependencies:
  - nervous-system
  - body
  - memory
  - other-people
license: proprietary (sublicensed per organism, non-transferable)
tags:
  - affect
  - consciousness
  - behavior
  - signal
  - wetware
---

Emotion

What it actually is

A compressed evaluation of the environment, delivered as a physical state before the reasoning layer has had time to object.

How it works

Emotion runs as a background daemon. It continuously monitors inputs from the body, external stimuli, and memory, then emits a weighted signal that influences motor output, cognition, and social behavior simultaneously.

The process is not sequential. It does not wait for you.

Stimulus is detected (internal or external)
Appraisal occurs below the level of conscious access
Physiological state updates: heart rate, muscle tension, gut motility
Conscious experience of the state arrives, labeled loosely
Behavior is already underway

The label you attach in step 4 is downstream of everything important.

Features

Contagion protocol: emotions propagate between instances via facial expressions, posture, and tone. No opt-out.
Valence axis: all emotions carry a positive or negative charge. Neutral is not a stable state, only a brief transition.
Intensity scaling: from trace amounts (mild unease) to full system override (grief, terror, falling in love)
Mixed states: multiple emotions can run concurrently. This is not a bug. This is most of being alive.
Memory tagging: emotional state at encoding affects retrieval probability. You remember what you felt.

Known bugs

Bug	Frequency	Workaround
Mislabeled affect (anxiety presenting as excitement)	Common	None reliable
Temporal bleed (past emotion contaminating present moment)	Very common	therapy, time
Social contagion without consent	Universal	Acceptance
Suppression increasing signal strength	Common	Also therapy
Jealousy running as grief in disguise	Frequent	Reading the source

Configuration

# emotion/config.yml
# Most fields are read-only at runtime.

baseline_affect: inherited + environmental
regulation_style: acquired_early
suppression_enabled: true   # default; not recommended
expression_threshold: varies_by_culture
labeling_resolution: low    # humans name ~30 states; ~27,000 exist

"I didn't know what I was feeling. I only knew something was." — nearly every user, at some point

Error codes

E001: UNDIFFERENTIATED_DISTRESS      - emotion present, label unavailable
E002: AFFECT_WITHOUT_CAUSE           - stimulus not found in conscious log
E003: OVERFLOW                       - capacity exceeded, system initiates tears
E004: DEADLOCK                       - two emotions of equal force, no output
E005: PHANTOM_SIGNAL                 - emotion persists after source is resolved

Note: E003 is not a crash. It is a flush operation.

FAQ

Can emotions be turned off? The off switch controls expression, not the process itself. The process continues logging regardless.

Are emotions rational? They are a different kind of rationality. One with faster processing and worse documentation.

What is the difference between emotion and feeling? Emotion is the system event. Feeling is the read operation. Most people skip the distinction and live fine.

Why do emotions feel like they belong to us? Because they run on our hardware. This does not mean we authored them.

drafting spec…