JB: How do you see - the theories of emotions that you've pointed out - in terms of people's lives?

MINSKY: When as a young child I first heard of psychologists-those people who know how human minds work-I found this somewhat worrisome. They must be awfully powerful; they could make you do whatever they want. Of course, that turned out to be false. Instead, that fearful power resides in our politicians and preachers. If anything, understanding how emotions work makes it harder to exploit them.

In any case, I hope that it will be a good thing when we understand how our minds are built, and how they support the modes of thought that we like to call emotions. Then we'll be better able to decide what we like about them, and what we don't-and bit by bit we'll rebuild ourselves. I don't think that most people will bother with this, because they like themselves just as they are. Perhaps they are not selfish enough, or imaginative or ambitious. Myself, I don't much like how people are now. We're too shallow, slow, and ignorant. I hope that our future will lead us to ideas that we can use to improve ourselves.