In Ilya Sutskever’s latest interview, he mentioned a patient whose emotional center in the brain was damaged, and whose ability to make decisions in life was also severely impaired. This case comes from the neuroscience classic Descartes’ Error, and Ilya’s speak sparked some deep reflection on mine.

Elliot suffered damage to his limbic system (the emotional center). Despite having a superior IQ and flawless logic, he completely lost the ability to make decisions. He would spend agonizing hours analyzing the pros and cons of wearing black socks versus blue socks, yet could never reach a conclusion.

This case shatters the myth of “pure rationality” and led me to a fundamental realization about the mechanics of human decision-making:
Emotion determines the trade-offs between various weights when making a choice. All of this happens instantaneously in the subconscious— perhaps even at the quantum level.

Why do I say this?
1. Emotion is the Weight: Pure logic only provides a list of “options,” all of which are technically equal. Only when emotion intervenes can values be assigned to these options. Elliot’s struggle was that every option carried a weight of 1.0, trapping his logic in an infinite loop.
2. Subconscious Quantum Collapse: We think we are consciously deliberating, but our brains may have already computed the answer in microseconds. This process resembles the “collapse” of the wave function in quantum mechanics. The moment emotion steps in as the “observer,” the superposition of infinite possibilities collapses into a single reality—”I have decided.”

This is precisely why the generalization ability of even the most advanced current AI cannot yet compete with humans. AI has data, but it lacks the biological intuition required for instantaneous value trade-offs in novel situations.

I have always firmly believed that human generalization ability stems directly from this “intuition.”

As an advocate of multi-disciplinary learning, I experience this constantly. In my own learning process, those magical “epiphanies” (Aha moments) are rarely the result of linear, conscious thought. They are completed in magical instants, almost unconsciously—they are accomplished through intuition.

**Reason provides the map, but emotion is the navigator that makes the final call.**

Sharing a diagram below that visualizes the neural pathways connecting reason and emotion. 👇 🙂