[Basic] Skill of the week: Cooking

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anders

We are more and more edging into the territory of Skill of the Week: Psychology. Or Philosophy.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Because emotion is a kind of sensory mechanism.

/me gets all screeching like tearing metal in a crash between two mecha, recalling lessons from Psychology back in the day, which very clearly made a point that it isn't

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's the same model Flyndaran is relying on. But it's the product of Cartesian dualism, which is a purely speculative hypothesis that turns out not to fit the way the brain processes information. "Pure logic," in human beings, not only is not the opposite of emotion but is dependent on emotion to function at all. And emotion in turn tends to respond to internal cognitive models of the world that are partly shaped by logic.

Hypothetically, you can imagine an AI that doesn't use emotion as a basis for logic. But in fact we haven't created an AI that can cognitively grasp the real world, we don't know how to build one, and we don't know how it would work if we did. Flyndaran's suppositions thus are also purely speculative. There is no positive evidence to show that an AI would or could work that way; just supposition, based on an outmoded model of Natural Intelligence.

You know, that might actually explain why even LAIs (and to a small extent, NAIs) in THS have traits that we tend to see as human and/or 'fuzzy'.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by cbower

Because people are funny that way. We aren't, and can't be, creatures of pure logic.

Of course humans and all biologically evolved life forms we know of need emotion to function. I never implied otherwise. I merely don't like the assertion that our way of thought is all there can be without violating physics.

But way off topic.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Kromm

How did I miss this thread? Probably something to do with surgery. Anyway . . .

In my present secret-agents campaign, the PCs use Cooking in all kinds of creative ways. I've let them use it to keep morale up while staked out in a blind watching enemies; I allow it to jazz up MREs and the equivalent to avoid penalties for boredom and discomfort. I've had them use it as a complementary skill to Influence rolls, to impress various contacts and potential allies; in a context where the meal was the thing, I've let Cooking be the Influence skill. ..

[snip]

And it was used on several occasions to appease supernatural entities who had hang-ups about food, notably spirits who couldn't taste or eat but who insisted on lavish offerings prepared in front of them.

again, I grew up with my mom's subpar cooking.

Boredom and depressive frustration from repetitive diets is serious for low stress lifestyles like mine, let alone when adventuring. Strict adherence to a personal type of diabetic diet, lactose intolerance, refusal to eat mammals, and distaste for fish has forced me to get a bit inventive in designing meals.

I liked MREs back before all most of my dietary restriction developed. Then

I imagine that it may take competent Cooks to deal with unusual dietary restrictions or allergies.