Wrath of the Swarm said:
Do you model the patterns of activation, or do you feel that you must emulate the basic emotional states as well?
Emulate the emotional states? I just fake it. I can't
make myself feel what I think I ought to feel, but I can respond as if I feel that way in an attempt to fit in. For example, during high school graduation, my female acquaintances were getting all weepy and emotional. Apparently leaving one's friends is supposed to make you feel sad. I didn't really feel any emotions, sad or otherwise, but I probably tried to fake it a little. I'm not too good at faking the emotion itself but I try to say the right words so it sounds like I feel sad (or whatever.)
If you're asked what a hypothetical "average" person would feel in a certain situation, you have to think about it. You don't have an intuitive certainty about how people would feel in that situation.
Well, in my real life example above, I definitely wouldn't have known how the average person feels at graduation without having observed other people's behavior. I certainly don't have an intuitive feel for that one. On the hand, there might be other examples which are easier to guess. For example, I wouldn't have to think too hard about how people are supposed to feel at funerals. Obviously they are supposed to feel sad.
Frankly, I was curious as to something a friend of mine mentioned to me once, that there is a definite subset of people who don't have the same inborn drives and preferences as the general populace. Among the associated attributes he mentioned was lacking certain "innate" emotional responses and a conscious attempt to simulate them in order to fit in.
That's kind of vague. There are a whole bunch of preferences that I don't seem to share with a hypothetical average person, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe that's true for many people. I did feel as a kid that I didn't seem to like a lot of the things that the other kids liked. They liked games, parties, competition, television, movies, socializing, etc. When we'd have a film shown in class, they'd respond, "Yay, a movie!" as if it were a good thing. I'd rather have a formal lesson than be forced to watch a movie. And games are even worse. I hate the kind where people win or lose. When my dad and I play board games, usually my condition for playing is, "sure, as long as we don't keep score."
I think I have the same inborn "drives" as other people, though, if you don't count a social instinct. I try to avoid being hungry, cold, uncomfortable, etc. I thought that sort of thing was universal. (Or is that not what you meant?)
Anyway, it's probably possible to read too much into this. I don't want to fall into the trap of medical students' syndrome.
). I do remember your avatar which was similar to but different from the one you have now. It is possible I didn't have one then which is perhaps why you didn't remember it was me (or perhaps I am just too insignificant 
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