Computational Modelling of Emotion Dynamics ??!!

We had this talk on how to simulate patterns of emotional dynamics. The talk seemed quite interesting honestly, I switched off for most of the parts related to mathematical equations etc. But I did get something out of the talk. In fact my strategy of attending talks are primarily to understand something new or to listen to something that I know of or interested in or to acquire knowledge of what certain areas of work involve. Basically if I can at least learn one new idea or an information that might as well be the size of a single sentence then I feel that my time has been put to some good use. 

Most parts of the above talk went over my head :-D But that is fine. I was happy about the whole concept and what this Post Doc was working on. The question is simple, can we model the dynamics of emotions experienced by a person? Now people have done some amount of work in this regard, the only difference being that most works have concentrated on the initiation and the aftermath of certain emotions but there have been no studies about the processes that occur once the emotions are triggered. Now, I wondered how such a study would help, The examples suggested ranged from being able to write books that fits with the emotional curve suggested to elicit the appropriate or pronounced responses in the reader and other clinically useful stuff.

But by the time the talk came towards its end (it almost seemed like it would not because of all the debate that arose from the beginning itself), I felt that maybe such studies at some point will die their own natural death like the cloning studies. Of course, I won't deny the fact that cloning is completely different from studying emotions, but it will for sure instigate a similar response from the general public. No matter how useful the tool might be in using to treat patients struggling from psychological problems etc, it can still be used to predict responses of a regular person who might raise "invasion of privacy" issues. But when I thought about it carefully I realised that it would probably take another 3-4 decades or even more (or a lot less) to capture something as complex as emotions (which by themselves are quite elusive to categorize ) into a simple curve ! I will of course be happy when John comes up with some level of promising studies while I continue to know him, sometimes I can't but feel happy about how exciting science can get like a true geek :-P But who cares really, I feel happy and as I walk out I feel like I got a large dosage of mental boost, optimism, new ideas and revision of the fact that "yes, anything is possible" which is the most important of them all :-D !!!