para-intelligence and the minds beyond

[Superfluous Crow]

Many who delve into the fantastic field of race construction spend an awful lot of time coming up with monstrous shapes, but how much do you spend on monstrous minds? Have you come up with creatures that had foreign ways of thinking?
I'm currently creating version 3.0 of my demons, and to this end I'm considering some different approaches to how a creature that is only sentient when invoked would think. I'm currently thinking that demons differ by lacking emotions and free will, being led by a subconscious or outside force. They also possess a certain envy of emotions that cause them to erupt into exaggerated displays of emulated emotion at times. Essentially they are deterministic philosophical-zombies but i think it has a nice effect.
I'm also considering a hyper-conscious creature where every single action is up to his free will. He can decide suddenly to stop seeing or hearing for example, or to fall asleep or dilate his eyes or increase his heartbeat. This would of course require a massive mind that spend most of its power on basic processes but could in emergencies redirect energy.
One of my favorite examples of alternative intelligence is the Weaver from Perdido Street Station. That's monstrous intelligence at its peak.
But what ideas have you had if any?

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I don't bother.  It's too much thinking for something that I would end up not using anyway.  I really prefer all my creatures to either have animal intelligence or an intelligence and mindset like a humans.  The reason for this is that I am most fascinated with how humans interact with each other, and so have no need for non-human-mind sentients.

[Loch Belthadd]

It is very difficult for me to think of non human sentience, mainly because I am human..

[Llum]

I normally don't use non-human races, usually everything is derived from humans.

There are exceptions to this (my setting The Calm in the Eye of the Realmstorm) but I'm really struggling to make all the races different and alien. What is up now was my first attempt, but I think it will need a few more passes over it first.

[LordVreeg]

I use many different mindset/perspectives.
Many of my Outsiders have exaggerated tendencies.  Devilkin are in a state of constant contrast to others around them,  obsessed with interaction and knowing everything about a creature (the better to place themselves vs. them), to the point of obsession.
When they are not finding out about an individual, they are talking about that individual to others. Devilkin will stop almost anything to notate one creature outsmarting another.  The more powerful ones that have vast intellect still do this, but with grerater range.  They often ask a person to compre themselves to another, in a specific area.  And as a race that can transact in Devanic/planar energy, they will try to bargain at the damned worst  times.
Creatures from the House of Earth are rigid in their thinking, with no curiousity.  Most of them are incredibly literal,  They can make a PC nuts.

[snakefing]

Wouldn't subconscious drives be a (weird) form of free will?

I think you might, in reference to Vreeg's concepts of exaggerated tendencies, have a window to a sort of limited intelligence. It is smart enough to recognize some things around it, but blind to certain other things, and so seems obsessive to humans.

At the other end, you might have beings whose perceptions so far transcend the human that they seem equally odd. Things that cause us great turmoil are of little consequence to them, because they can perceive the ultimate uselessness or futility; while things we can hardly conceive of are raised to primary importance. This too might seem a little obsessive; but in contrast to the frenetic obsessiveness of Vreeg's devilkin, it might seem a bit cool and detached.

[Superfluous Crow]

My demons live mindless existences on their own plane (to avoid the paradox of them being snatched from their daily lives) and only manifest real intelligence when possessing a sentient creature. In these cases their personalities would have to spring out of nothing; they have no childhood, education or memories to draw from. As such, it seems like the obvious next step to remove their free will. Instead they are governed by incomprehensible impulses; maybe from a well-hidden all-encompassing subconscious mind or maybe from something else (the Authority Theory, that gives rise to the theory of demons being extensions of the will of gods or the devil). Their emulated emotions might be an attempt to fit in or leftovers from the conquered mind.
I think the hyperconsciousness idea is pretty cool myself. Although I'm having some problems figuring out how they would react to surprises, and how emotions would work. They would probably also lack certain reflexes.
Do you think it would make "sense" to have minds lack emotion if they are transferred to an artificial vessel?

[Xeviat]

Do you think it would make "sense" to have minds lack emotion if they are transferred to an artificial vessel?

I think that would have to depend on your setting's views on consciousness and the soul. Is a creature's mind just chemicals and nerve pathways in their brain, or is there a mind separate from the body? Is the soul separate from the mind and body?

[Biohazard]

I'm going with everything from base-eight thought for the Wraz (who only have eight digits) which isn't something new in fiction, to totally alien minds ala Cthulhu and everything in between, when it comes to Dystopian Universe. I'm also spending a lot of time working out religions/philosophies that seem a least a little weird or "illogical".

You can be guaranteed, though, that in DU/The Oddity, most of the alien species are going to be alien as much because of their thought processes as their appearance and homeworlds.

[Superfluous Crow]

Do you think it would make "sense" to have minds lack emotion if they are transferred to an artificial vessel?

I think that would have to depend on your setting's views on consciousness and the soul. Is a creature's mind just chemicals and nerve pathways in their brain, or is there a mind separate from the body? Is the soul separate from the mind and body?

The soul is separate from the body, but its interaction with the physical world depends on the brain. So it all depends on whether a mechanical brain can duplicate emotions. Would it be more interesting if a transfer to an immortal body meant the sacrifice of your emotions?

[snakefing]

Well, in the real world there's no doubt that emotions are partially mediated by the circulation of hormones, changes in various neurotransmitters, and the like. So transferring a mind to a different body (much less an electronic or mechanical one) would certainly change that aspect of it. At the same time, I'd think that emotions are at least partially related to preferences or habits of thought that would persist, albeit perhaps somewhat attenuated in their affect.

In some degree, I'm not sure it would be more interesting if the emotions would be entirely sacrificed. That might make the end result so recognizably not the same as the original person as to reduce the temptation to think of it as real immortality.

[Superfluous Crow]

Hmm, then partly? The longing for stronger emotions remaining.

[snakefing]

Yes, I think so. There would be enough vestige of emotions to be recognizable, but maybe they'd also fade away over time?

You could also have something were the hardware (or construct or whatever) tries to simulate the biological aspects of emotions - well enough to be identifiable, but also poorly enough to be noticeable.

E.g., serotonin is a powerful chemical that mediates the communication between synapses. Obviously very important in the biological brain; and medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have strong emotional effects. Now an electronic brain wouldn't have serotonin, but maybe you could somewhat mimic this with a small bias voltage in the chips? But that wouldn't be just right, and the effect would obviously not be the same.

Just a different way of thinking about it.

[Superfluous Crow]

Yeah, like if they tried to make mechanical counterparts to some of the emotions. Slightly hollow or artificial.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I have nothing meaningful to add at this time. But I have to say your take on demons, and this thread, has always fascinated me. I found it all very compelling.