Happy Mind: The Philosophy and Science of Happiness

 

Katherine Power writes about the science of love.

 

Expressions like 'madly in love', 'crazy for you' and 'lovesick' may be more accurate than we think. When we fall in love, our brains experience an explosion of powerful chemicals. The neural profile that emerges has led some scientists to compare the initial stages of love to mental illnesses like obsessive compulsive disorder and mania, the manic phase of manic depression.

Helen Fisher, a researcher at Rutgers University and the author of Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love believes we evolved three systems related to matters of the heart: the first deals with lust, the second with romantic love – also known as attraction, obsessive love, passionate love or 'being in love' – and the third with attachment. Fisher's theory is that the three systems motivate us, respectively, to mate, focus our attention on a particular partner, and stick with that partner long enough to look after the children we may have.

 

 

(This is the longer version of an interview originally published in Rocks Magazine, February 2007 issue.)

 

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what is its purpose?

AI is the study of intelligence in humans, animals, and machines and the attempt to engineer intelligence into any type of artifact.

One purpose of AI is to understand what intelligence is and how it works. The second is to build useful technology. As a matter of history, AI has been very successful at both.