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Optional Emotions



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Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:27 am
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SidereaAquila says...



I'm working on a sci-fi story, in 1st person POV, and the narration rotates between some of the crewmembers of a starship. One of the character's I'm planning on writing as has a mild case of PTSD, because of an incident with the villain. I'm hoping to include a flashback in one of his chapters, but I'm a little unsure of how to go about doing this. The kicker is that he's a robot. He wasn't designed to process feelings, but the scientist who created him was a reckless experimenter, and she wrote him a program that gave him human emotions. When the program is off, the PTSD doesn't affect him at all, but when it's on, it can be crippling for him. Since he doesn't fully understand what he's feeling, I've been having trouble imagining what a flashback scene might be like. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:08 am
Rosendorn says...



PTSDs can be highly varied, and I'd suggest you look into the American Psychiatric's Association diagnostic criteria to determine exactly how his PTSD expresses itself. Some criteria have up to six or seven variables, and you can express hundreds of combinations of these variables. Some variables do determine how people remember the stressful act, so you'd have to determine which ones (if any of those) he's expressing.

Hope this helps.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

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Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:10 am
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SidereaAquila says...



Alright, thanks.
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Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:11 am
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Rosendorn says...



I managed to dig up the criteria. Enjoy.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:13 am
Kale says...



Question: are there other robots out there that have programmed emotions, or is he the only one?

If he's the only one, that seriously kills any suspension of disbelief on my end since human emotions and psychology are quite nuanced, and so any program emulating them would have to be incredibly sophisticated. Programs like that don't just appear out of thin air, brilliant programmer or no.

Another question: why is it necessary for this robot to even have human emotions?

If it has to do with making him more relatable, then I ask: is it absolutely necessary for a character to have emotions to be relatable?

People relate to inanimate, emotion-incapable objects all the time, after all. It might also prove to be more interesting to explore interactions and attachments with a truly emotionless character.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
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Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:16 pm
SidereaAquila says...



First question: yes, there are other robots like him. He came from the most advanced robotics lab in the galaxy, so there are about a hundred others scattered across the galaxy. My villain destroyed the lab before more could be made.

Second question: his particular class of robot is designed to work on starships. They're supposed to behave exactly like normal crew members would, but with perks humans don't have (heat-resistant polymer skin, for example). Relation is part of it, but not for the reader--the scientists found that it was easier for the robots to do their job if they could relate to the crew. Also, some of the younger crew members, who weren't used to working with any sort of robot, would get pretty freaked out after a while.
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:53 am
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Kale says...



That sounds interesting, though I'm now left wondering why the programmers would leave emotional responses that could be crippling (like PTSD) within the programming since the emotions are supposed to facilitate the robots' jobs.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
WRFF | KotGR
  





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Sat Jul 14, 2012 4:36 am
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SidereaAquila says...



That's his own fault. Many of the scientists were killed, and his programmed "personality" makes him rather curious, so he's been making his own programming modifications, with some help from the ship's psychologist. He finds it easier to disable the program temporarily than to try to undo what he's programmed.
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:45 pm
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Kale says...



That makes a lot of sense. :o

If you ever post the story on here, let me know. I'd like to read it.
Secretly a Kyllorac, sometimes a Murtle.
There are no chickens in Hyrule.
Princessence: A LMS Project
WRFF | KotGR
  





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Sat Jul 14, 2012 8:47 pm
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SidereaAquila says...



OK. My first draft isn't very good, even as first drafts go, so I'll probably post it after the first round of editing.
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I tell the neophyte: Write a million words–the absolute best you can write, then throw it all away and bravely turn your back on what you have written. At that point, you’re ready to begin.
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