Andrés Gómez Emilsson | An Intuitive Explanation of the Symmetry Theory of Valence @/Andr%C3%A9sG%C3%B3mezEmilsson | Uploaded November 2019 | Updated October 2024, 16 minutes ago.
The Symmetry Theory of Valence posits that what makes an experience feel good or bad is its degree of symmetry and anti-symmetry. The intuition here is that the symmetry of the experience cashes out in the ability to "effortlessly rest your attention" while anti-symmetry has the effect of "jittering your attention without your control". I then provide an intuitive explanation for why this might be true and why it tracks pleasure and pain. To do so I discuss the following key phenomena and take them as evidence for the Symmetry Theory of Valence:
1) Massage vs. bodily pain
2) The unpleasantness of dissonant sounds
3) Concentration meditation (why the Buddhist Jhanas, which have surprisingly low-information content, also have strong emotional qualities)
4) The emotional effects of *intense* stroboscopic stimulation
5) The reason why music sounds so compelling in dreams (it's not the melody but the intensified resonance and reverb effects!)
6) How the various classes of euphoric drugs can be analyzed in light of their neuroacoustic effects (slow-euphoria as low-frequency consonance, fast-euphoria as high-frequency consonance, and criticality-euphoria as fractal consonance)
7) The phenomenal character of orgasm
8) The surprising EEG Gamma coherence of highly valenced states of consciousness such as those induced by 5-MeO-DMT
9) The subjective nature of anxiety (characterized in part by physiological prediction errors that jitter your attention)
10) Linguistic evidence (e.g. being "twisted" and "screwed" are negative while feeling "harmony" and "balance" are positive)
For more, see:
Qualia Research Institute website: qualiaresearchinstitute.org
Qualia Computing website: qualiacomputing.com
How the Symmetry Theory of Valence may cash out in better neuroscience:
Quantifying Bliss - qualiacomputing.com/2017/06/18/quantifying-bliss-talk-summary
ELI5 Symmetry Theory of Valence - opentheory.net/2017/04/stov-explain-like-im-5-edition
And a wild-card link to keep you entertained:
What’s out there? - opentheory.net/2019/09/whats-out-there
The Symmetry Theory of Valence posits that what makes an experience feel good or bad is its degree of symmetry and anti-symmetry. The intuition here is that the symmetry of the experience cashes out in the ability to "effortlessly rest your attention" while anti-symmetry has the effect of "jittering your attention without your control". I then provide an intuitive explanation for why this might be true and why it tracks pleasure and pain. To do so I discuss the following key phenomena and take them as evidence for the Symmetry Theory of Valence:
1) Massage vs. bodily pain
2) The unpleasantness of dissonant sounds
3) Concentration meditation (why the Buddhist Jhanas, which have surprisingly low-information content, also have strong emotional qualities)
4) The emotional effects of *intense* stroboscopic stimulation
5) The reason why music sounds so compelling in dreams (it's not the melody but the intensified resonance and reverb effects!)
6) How the various classes of euphoric drugs can be analyzed in light of their neuroacoustic effects (slow-euphoria as low-frequency consonance, fast-euphoria as high-frequency consonance, and criticality-euphoria as fractal consonance)
7) The phenomenal character of orgasm
8) The surprising EEG Gamma coherence of highly valenced states of consciousness such as those induced by 5-MeO-DMT
9) The subjective nature of anxiety (characterized in part by physiological prediction errors that jitter your attention)
10) Linguistic evidence (e.g. being "twisted" and "screwed" are negative while feeling "harmony" and "balance" are positive)
For more, see:
Qualia Research Institute website: qualiaresearchinstitute.org
Qualia Computing website: qualiacomputing.com
How the Symmetry Theory of Valence may cash out in better neuroscience:
Quantifying Bliss - qualiacomputing.com/2017/06/18/quantifying-bliss-talk-summary
ELI5 Symmetry Theory of Valence - opentheory.net/2017/04/stov-explain-like-im-5-edition
And a wild-card link to keep you entertained:
What’s out there? - opentheory.net/2019/09/whats-out-there
