41–50 of 207 posts
I don’t see why they bothered drugging the brains. Even if they became conscious, the pig’s bodies are dead and gone. There is nothing to feel, one is simply alone with their thoughts, perhaps even dreams.
I don’t see why they bothered drugging the brains. Even if they became conscious, the pig’s bodies are dead and gone. There is nothing to feel, one is simply alone with their thoughts, perhaps even dreams.
Technically, the medical community only considers physical injury with the term 'pain', but there is growing consensus that pain can be more general (especially considering it is often subjective). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2952112/
Imagine donating your body to science and then waking up in a lab as a brain in a vat. "A Living Soul" by P. C. Jersild is amazing sci-fi book exploring this. https://www.amazon.com/Living-Norvik-Press-English-Swedish/d... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._C._Jersild
I can't wrap my head around what it would be like to exist merely as a consciousness within my brain, lacking any sensory organs to perceive the surrounding world. Of course, I've also never been in a sensory deprivation tank.
Your point still stands of course.
Who you are must be in chemistry of your brain not in the electricity because you are same person after epileptic seizure as before.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Throwing it out there—when I'm dead, you are totally allowed to resuscitate my brain. Better than being dead. Are you comfortable with the possibility that those who are reviving you might not be doing it for your benefit?
I think so. Still better than being dead. (If they're explicitly trying to cause me pain, that would be a no.)
That is my point.
I imagine that, if this was a possibility, quite a lot of people would be ok (or even demand it) to make available "150 years after natural death" sentences, so that they can apply it to their newly deposed dictator. Then, once the new rulers become entrenched in power and begin to like it, they can start using it on their political opponents. Prisoner exchanges between warring countries could become quite interesting. Quite likely, some people might feel inclined to hang on to their loved ones forever. Remember Terri Schiavo [1]?
Feel free to imagine more interesting scenarios. If you don't start to shudder, you're just not thinking big enough. You can watch this Black Mirror episode [2] to get you started.
This gives a whole new meaning to the expression "killer application".
This is from the Nature article on the same subject [1]: > [...] Nevertheless, the development of technology with the potential to support sentient, disembodied organs has broad ethical implications for the welfare of animals and people. “There isn’t really an oversight mechanism in place for worrying about the possible ethical consequences of creating consciousness in something that isn’t a living animal,” says Step…
At least there where meetings with free soft drinks and canapes.
Throwing it out there—when I'm dead, you are totally allowed to resuscitate my brain. Better than being dead. Please make sure I am supplied with some good books to read, if at all possible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think so. Still better than being dead. (If they're explicitly trying to cause me pain, that would be a no.)
There won't be any pain as brains don't have nerve endings. But you won't have any other senses too. Just pitch blank, deathly silence, floating for eternity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pain exists in the brain, not the body.
All response experience exists within the brain, yes, but it is only ever made possible through external stimulus. The brain itself doesn't feel anything, but generates those feelings as a response to events outside of itself. "If it seems strange that nerve signals coming from the back can represent vision, bear in mind that your own sense of vision is carried by nothing but millions of nerve signals that just happe…