Feeling aren'tusually associated with inanimate(无生命的)machines, but Posalind Picard, a professor of computer technology atMIT,believes emotion may be just the
thing computes needto work effectively.Computers need artificial emotion both to understand theirhuman users better and to achieve self-analysis and self-
improvement,saysPicard.
"If we wantcomputers to be genuinely intelligent,to adapt to us,and to interact naturallywith us,then they will need the ability to recognize and express emotions,tohave
emotions,and to havewhat has come to be called emotional intelligence,"Picard says.
One way thatemotions can help computers,she suggests,is by helping keep them from crashing.Today's computers produce error messages,but they do not have a "gut
feeling" ofknowing when something is wrong or doesn't make sense.A healthy fear of deathcould motivate a computer to stop trouble as soon as it starts.On the otherhand,
self-preservationwould need to be subordinate to service to humans.It was fear of its own deaththat promoted RAL,the fictional computer in the film 2002 :A Space
Odyssey, toextermine(消灭)most of itshuman associates.
Similarly,computersthat could"read"their users would accumulate a store of highlypersonal information about us一not just what we said and did,but what we likely thought
and felt.
"Emotion notonly contribute to a richer quality of interaction,but they directly impact aperson's ability to interact in an intelligent way,"Picardsays."Emotional
skills,especiallythe ability to recognize and express emotions,are essential for naturalcommunication with humans."
A.intuitive feelings
B.guilty feelings
C.confusing feelings
D.unpleasantfeelings