Part II: Identity Thesis

Affect Trajectories

Introduction
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Affect Trajectories

Affects are not static points but dynamic trajectories through affect space. The evolution can be written:

dadt=F(a,o,a,context)+η\frac{d\mathbf{a}}{dt} = F(\mathbf{a}, \obs, \action, \text{context}) + \bm{\eta}

where a=(Val,Ar,Φ,reff,CF,SM)\mathbf{a} = (\valence, \arousal, \intinfo, \effrank, \mathcal{CF}, \mathcal{SM}).

Because the space is continuous, adjacent affects blend into each other along smooth trajectories:

  • Fear →\to Anger as causal attribution externalizes
  • Desire →\to Joy as goal distance →0\to 0
  • Suffering →\to Curiosity as valence flips while CF\mathcal{CF} remains high
  • Grief →\to Nostalgia as arousal decreases and CFapproach\mathcal{CF}_{\text{approach}} replaces CFavoidance\mathcal{CF}_{\text{avoidance}}