------------------ i'm thinking about goal processes, and something i haven't thought about much internally is how considering something can stimulate goal-associated feelings (like excitement or worry) without immediate consciousness of the connection, for me. this wasn't always the case, but when trauma happens in this situation one can become very sensitised to triggers; I also have processes in me that attempt to "snipe" my own behaviors, acting before I do. emotions here are basically utility. excitement and such is positive utility, worry and such are negative utility. this lets one consider the simulation of something -- the exploration and evaluation of a decision tree -- as part or all of a way to update its own evaluation function. we explore what is possible, and see whether we like it or not. if we do or don't, then we migrate that pleasure or pain up toward the root of the decision tree. if we can then identify that a state may be similar to one previously explored, this gives us a quick heuristic for how much we might be interested in it. that heuristic itself, can also have a learned usefulness for informing general utility.