4 ms·

It is correct, from my perspective. Pain is just the interpretation of signals from sensory organs. Our brain could just as easily interpret it as something els

by bcook 11y ago

It is correct, from my perspective. Pain is just the interpretation of signals from sensory organs. Our brain could just as easily interpret it as something else or disregard it.

lisper 11y ago
Not really. Try this experiment: hit yourself on the head with a sledgehammer and then try to "interpret" the pain as something else (eating chocolate, say) or just "disregard" it. You'll find it's not so easy. In fact, you already know that I'm right about this. You are in fact so convinced that I am right that you will not try this experiment. How do I know this? Because millions of years of evolution has hard-wired this understanding of pain into your brain. Anyone who doesn't have this understanding hard-wired into their brains tends not to survive because they end up doing stupid things like hitting themselves on the head with sledgehammers just to see what will happen. In fact, there are a very few people who can't feel pain. It's a very serious problem. They have to be extremely careful because they can easily sustain life-threatening injuries and not realize it.
- DanBC 11y ago
  But you're being a bit dogmatic. We use psychological techniques to reduce pain in, for example, cancer patients. You're reducing pain to some reaction to the physical world, but we see that some people have pain with no physical stimulus; and we some people who can reduce their pain even though there are physical stimuli present. When you properly control a study on pain meds you see such a strong placebo response that it's hard to justify using the meds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351230 http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-painkiller-trials-1.18511 http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-p...
  - lisper 11y ago
    All true. That doesn't change the fact that some (in fact, much) subjective experience arises from external stimulus, and so it is not correct to say that everything you experience is all in your head. Some of what you experience is all in your head (dreams, psychosomatic conditions, hallucinations), and the rest is a combination of in your head and not in your head. (Obviously, any phenomenon that is entirely outside of your head is not part of your experience.)
    - bcook 11y ago
      Indeed, prove that your entire life experience is not delusions and hallucinations. The mind is capable of false reality and deep delusions, unless you think you are more capable and aware than your brain... You think that you have experienced things beyond your own brain, but that is just your brain telling you that. There is probably entire fields of study focused on logically proving that reality is real... We have very little chance of evolving this conversation into something more than ego-fueled arguing. :)
      - lisper 11y ago
        No, you're wrong about that. The ability to do science provides overwhelming evidence that solipsism is false. For an extended treatment, read David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" chapter 3.
        bcook 11y ago
        You've obviously got more brains in your pinky finger than I have between my ears. :P

by bcook 11y ago

It is correct, from my perspective. Pain is just the interpretation of signals from sensory organs. Our brain could just as easily interpret it as something else or disregard it.

lisper 11y ago

Not really. Try this experiment: hit yourself on the head with a sledgehammer and then try to "interpret" the pain as something else (eating chocolate, say) or just "disregard" it. You'll find it's not so easy. In fact, you already know that I'm right about this. You are in fact so convinced that I am right that you will not try this experiment. How do I know this? Because millions of years of evolution has hard-wired this understanding of pain into your brain. Anyone who doesn't have this understanding hard-wired into their brains tends not to survive because they end up doing stupid things like hitting themselves on the head with sledgehammers just to see what will happen. In fact, there are a very few people who can't feel pain. It's a very serious problem. They have to be extremely careful because they can easily sustain life-threatening injuries and not realize it.

DanBC 11y ago
But you're being a bit dogmatic. We use psychological techniques to reduce pain in, for example, cancer patients. You're reducing pain to some reaction to the physical world, but we see that some people have pain with no physical stimulus; and we some people who can reduce their pain even though there are physical stimuli present. When you properly control a study on pain meds you see such a strong placebo response that it's hard to justify using the meds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10351230 http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-painkiller-trials-1.18511 http://www.nature.com/news/strong-placebo-response-thwarts-p...
- lisper 11y ago
  All true. That doesn't change the fact that some (in fact, much) subjective experience arises from external stimulus, and so it is not correct to say that everything you experience is all in your head. Some of what you experience is all in your head (dreams, psychosomatic conditions, hallucinations), and the rest is a combination of in your head and not in your head. (Obviously, any phenomenon that is entirely outside of your head is not part of your experience.)
  - bcook 11y ago
    Indeed, prove that your entire life experience is not delusions and hallucinations. The mind is capable of false reality and deep delusions, unless you think you are more capable and aware than your brain... You think that you have experienced things beyond your own brain, but that is just your brain telling you that. There is probably entire fields of study focused on logically proving that reality is real... We have very little chance of evolving this conversation into something more than ego-fueled arguing. :)
    - lisper 11y ago
      No, you're wrong about that. The ability to do science provides overwhelming evidence that solipsism is false. For an extended treatment, read David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" chapter 3.
      - bcook 11y ago
        You've obviously got more brains in your pinky finger than I have between my ears. :P