5.2.2 Information representing feelings

This analysis is based on guesses and conjecture. There is no generally accepted catalogue of feelings either for humans or for other species.

• Earlier we listed just over thirty descriptions of feelings. Allowing for redundancy and ones we have missed, we are still likely to have fewer than 50 distinct feelings

Precision or resolution is hard to estimate, but I would guess that there are generally fewer than 256 distinct levels of any one single feeling. That would give us 8 bits per feeling.

• For this analysis we assume that combining or blending feelings will not change the catalogue of distinct feelings

An overall, blended, feeling should be some combination of 50 (or fewer) distinct feelings, each described as having a strength of feeling characterized by one of 256 levels.

• An overall, blended, feeling at any given instant of time should therefore be describable with 6 bits to specify the feeling, and 8 bits to specify the level, resulting in 48 bits.

Rate of change for feelings is another unknown, but introspectively we know that it is fairly slow.

• Pain is probably one of the fastest, but a second to second change is probably fast enough to capture any change in feeling.

The maximal combined rate is in the order of 48 bits per second, or 2.88 Kbits per minute