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> You can actually look up how these neurotransmitters etc work. Which doesn't explain having an experience of pain, only that certain neurotransmitters are in

> You can actually look up how these neurotransmitters etc work. Which doesn't explain having an experience of pain, only that certain neurotransmitters are involved which can be suppressed.

Retric 6y ago
Sure it does, the signal is the feeling. You are your body, so when your body sends a signal that is you feeling something.
- disgruntledphd2 6y ago
  But how come people have different pain thresholds then? I did a bunch of research on pain some years ago, and in order to "standardize" it, one would apply a treatment when the person said pain was greater than 7 out of 10 on a scale. If pain were measurable "objectively", this wouldn't be necessary.
  - Retric 6y ago
    People are not uniform templates using identical DNA and histories. Our bodies are different which means our subjective experiences are different. That’s both consistent and expected. As to measurement, we can design and build modern CPU’s but can’t inspect them in full speed operation. Similarly, mechanics often need to take something apart to test it. Living organisms present a more complex challenge, but the similarities are obvious.
    - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      Yes, but we cannot measure pain "objectively" at all. The equivalent would be if we could build a CPU, but could only determine how fast it could process by asking it to rate its processing power on a scale of 0 to 10.
      - Retric 6y ago
        Nothing is stopping a more technologically capable civilization from directly measuring our pain. You’re describing a purely technical limitation. We have plenty of ways of directly measuring people‘s brains and CPU’s energy use etc. The issue is speed and resolution which is hardly a philosophical limitation.
  - danans 6y ago
    > But how come people have different pain thresholds then? Different signal sources and also differently configured/trained systems receiving and interpreting those signals. But practically, it makes more sense to use the instrument already evolved and trained by their own experience to measure their pain: the person themselves.
    - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      > Different signal sources and also differently configured/trained systems receiving and interpreting those signals. I think that this is a little too general a statement, given that it could be used to describe almost any human variability.

> You can actually look up how these neurotransmitters etc work. Which doesn't explain having an experience of pain, only that certain neurotransmitters are involved which can be suppressed.

Retric 6y ago

Sure it does, the signal is the feeling. You are your body, so when your body sends a signal that is you feeling something.

disgruntledphd2 6y ago
But how come people have different pain thresholds then? I did a bunch of research on pain some years ago, and in order to "standardize" it, one would apply a treatment when the person said pain was greater than 7 out of 10 on a scale. If pain were measurable "objectively", this wouldn't be necessary.
- Retric 6y ago
  People are not uniform templates using identical DNA and histories. Our bodies are different which means our subjective experiences are different. That’s both consistent and expected. As to measurement, we can design and build modern CPU’s but can’t inspect them in full speed operation. Similarly, mechanics often need to take something apart to test it. Living organisms present a more complex challenge, but the similarities are obvious.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    Yes, but we cannot measure pain "objectively" at all. The equivalent would be if we could build a CPU, but could only determine how fast it could process by asking it to rate its processing power on a scale of 0 to 10.
    - Retric 6y ago
      Nothing is stopping a more technologically capable civilization from directly measuring our pain. You’re describing a purely technical limitation. We have plenty of ways of directly measuring people‘s brains and CPU’s energy use etc. The issue is speed and resolution which is hardly a philosophical limitation.
- danans 6y ago
  > But how come people have different pain thresholds then? Different signal sources and also differently configured/trained systems receiving and interpreting those signals. But practically, it makes more sense to use the instrument already evolved and trained by their own experience to measure their pain: the person themselves.
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    > Different signal sources and also differently configured/trained systems receiving and interpreting those signals. I think that this is a little too general a statement, given that it could be used to describe almost any human variability.