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An insect "feels" pain. It doesn't however feel retrospective pain, and it doesn't feel the past in the same way we do. Having a neocortex is like having a 6th
by Lambdanaut 13y ago
An insect "feels" pain. It doesn't however feel retrospective pain, and it doesn't feel the past in the same way we do.
Having a neocortex is like having a 6th sense.
Our taste, smell, hearing, sight, and feeling neurons are all indirectly fed into our brain. With a neocortex, that input is also fed in. It's our "consciousness" feeling.
I hope that explains the confusion.
- eurleif 13y agoThanks, that makes sense. I was thinking of a different definition of "consciousness", the "hard problem" definition. [0] For an ant to feel pain, it would have to be conscious in the hard problem sense. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness
- dd36 13y agoHow in the world would you know this?