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Sensory input is arbitrary. You can transmute visual imagery through electrodes to a brain (briefly). It’s an organ that transforms an input (e.g. light or soun

Sensory input is arbitrary. You can transmute visual imagery through electrodes to a brain (briefly). It’s an organ that transforms an input (e.g. light or sound) into a signal to the brain. We can make those signals too. The brain interprets those signals. Dopamine is not a “pleasure” chemical. It’s more like neural lube that allows your brain to train on specific patterns And motivation setting and frankly a whole bunch of things.

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
OK, but clearly I feel pleasure sometimes. And everything that's happening in my brain is chemical, right? So if we zoom in on the instant that I'm feeling pleasure -- not the thing that caused the pleasure, but the pleasure itself -- what's going on? For example, is there a "pleasure neuron" that turns a "pleasure gear" when it gets activated? Actually, this is making me rethink my earlier statement about carbon-based lifeforms -- perhaps whatever chemistry capable of causing pain or pleasure is a strict subset of organic chemistry.
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  Yes, there are explicit “hedonic hotspots” the causally determine if sensory input is pleasurable.
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
    OK, so presumably if the neurosurgeon stimulates those spots, I feel pleasure? How do the spots work?
    - jncfhnb 3y ago
      You’re going to need a deeper expert to go much further than this, but it’s basically a mapping of the sensory inputs to pleasurable responses. Many of which are hard coded into the brain’s design. Like sugar. Drugs are probably better suited to mess with these than surgeons. I think you’re asking though if something is intrinsically pleasurable to an organism. The answer is no. But all life has generally evolved to sensibly reward useful things and discourage bad things. So most brains are designed to interpret specific inputs as pleasurable. It’s not inconceivable that with advanced technology we could design an organism that experienced pleasure from whatever sensory inputs.

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago

OK, but clearly I feel pleasure sometimes. And everything that's happening in my brain is chemical, right? So if we zoom in on the instant that I'm feeling pleasure -- not the thing that caused the pleasure, but the pleasure itself -- what's going on? For example, is there a "pleasure neuron" that turns a "pleasure gear" when it gets activated? Actually, this is making me rethink my earlier statement about carbon-based lifeforms -- perhaps whatever chemistry capable of causing pain or pleasure is a strict subset of organic chemistry.

jncfhnb 3y ago
Yes, there are explicit “hedonic hotspots” the causally determine if sensory input is pleasurable.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
  OK, so presumably if the neurosurgeon stimulates those spots, I feel pleasure? How do the spots work?
  - jncfhnb 3y ago
    You’re going to need a deeper expert to go much further than this, but it’s basically a mapping of the sensory inputs to pleasurable responses. Many of which are hard coded into the brain’s design. Like sugar. Drugs are probably better suited to mess with these than surgeons. I think you’re asking though if something is intrinsically pleasurable to an organism. The answer is no. But all life has generally evolved to sensibly reward useful things and discourage bad things. So most brains are designed to interpret specific inputs as pleasurable. It’s not inconceivable that with advanced technology we could design an organism that experienced pleasure from whatever sensory inputs.