If we're not in pain, we're not alive.
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A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
71–80 of 178 posts
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#72If we're not in pain, we're not alive.
> If we're not in pain, we're not alive. That's a silly assertion. Pain isn't a hallmark of life--physical, mental, or otherwise. There's no 'merit' to it. There are plenty of organisms without pain receptors that are definitely alive. Pain doesn't correlate with how alive we are or the worth of our lives. Chronic pain sufferers would certainly rather not have pain.
Buddhists might disagree, although there's a distinction between pain and suffering.
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#73I wonder how healthy this actually is. Isn’t pain a signal the brain uses to alert you about a detected problem? Just eliminating the sensation of pain could mean your body would be unable to signal an issue that needs to be resolved.
Perhaps in someone with normal pain response, sure. But there are conditions which result in being in an almost constant state of pain. I could see this being a very useful tool in regaining some quality of life for people trying to manage these conditions.
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#74The article speaks about using this as a way to escape addiction to painkillers. Not so fast. Addiction is a phenomenon that predominantly happens in the brain, due to it constantly adapting to find homeostasis. And being unable to perceive pain when you should be is not homeostasis.
Opioid addiction is not like other addiction mechanisms. After prolonged use the gastrointestinal system is ravaged and when people want to stop they find themselves plagued not only with withdrawals symptoms but also by incredible abdominal pain, so they take more opioids, which worsens the pain, which requires more opioids to alleviate , which worsens the gastrointestinal damage and subsequent pain, and so on...
It's a vicious circle called narcotic bowel syndrome, taking away the pain would go a long way to solving this issue.
source: Am heavy opioid user
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#75If this technique can relieve pain it can likely also cause it, and also cause pleasure. So it has the potential to become a technology for human puppetry. Or for self abuse, as in Larry Niven's wireheads. It isn't hard to imagine various modern regimes willing to implant control devices into prisoners, criminal or political.
We can already cause pain or pleasure easily. This isn’t anything new. Think about how long the history of torture is.
That's like, we can already print books, so digitizing them isn't anything new. Or, we can already walk from San Francisco to New York, a transcontinental railway isn't anything new.
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#76I wonder how healthy this actually is. Isn’t pain a signal the brain uses to alert you about a detected problem? Just eliminating the sensation of pain could mean your body would be unable to signal an issue that needs to be resolved.
Complete elimination of pain is probably not a good idea, for sure. But the ability to actively shut off pain once you've acknowledged the problem, or at least numb it down to it not being completely debilitating, could be useful.
>But the ability to actively shut off pain once you've acknowledged the problem
That's not what this implant does though. It's all automatic within a few seconds which implies that you'd never be able to discern life threatening pain from stubbing your toe. It seems you'd receive an extremely short lived pain signal (if any) and then it'd be gone.
You'd have to give manual control to the individual for your suggestion to work and that comes with its own issues of "abuse"
>Once it detects an electrical signal that suggests “pain found,” it sends the information to the “sleeper agent,” a computer chip implanted in the front part of the brain. The chip then automatically triggers a light beam to stimulate the region, activating neurons that can override pain signals.
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#77Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#78This reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror. The teenager has an implant that causes stressors to be blurred out, preventing anxiety. During a fight, she starts hitting her mom and, because of the involved stress, she's unable to see the physical damage she's causing, ultimately murdering her. If this was implemented broadly, it'd very quickly lead to reckless/dangerous behavior.
Eliminating pain != eliminating stress
Though more broadly your point is likely correct that it will change some people's behaviour to do dangerous/stupid things because there's no negative feedback.
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#79There is a neural disorder where people can't feel pain, and it's hell. You live your life wrapped in protective gear.
I'm sure there's a middle ground between our default level of evolutionary baggage and no pain at all though. I wouldn't mind keeping burns and broken bones being painful, but I'd love to do away with minor annoyances like stinging nettles, wasps, and things like that. Also being able to turn off pain to a specific problematic area would be nice too, I have a permanent headache from a neurological issue and it'd save…
Imagine if you could turn down pain like hitting the snooze button on an alarm. "Yes, I know my bone has been broken and I'm working on addressing it, please snooze all pain signals from that area for an hour."
Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time
#80I always feel so confused by--and skeptical of--these kinds of brain implant technologies. It says: "The chip then automatically triggers a light beam to stimulate the region, activating neurons that can override pain signals." Isn't that potentially stimulating millions or even hundreds of millions of neurons? We don't know what each individual neuron is doing. How is it possible to do this without causing bizarre m…
The brain is far more robust than often assumed. Read up on Anatoli Bugorski for example. He had rather significant brain damage yet there was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity. He did suffer from seizures after the accident, but that’s about it. These kinds of implants have serious risks including infections etc, but for people with long term chronic pain there are few options.
I am so glad they are actively working on alleviating pain.
I know a guy who had horrid back pain. He was ok with opoids. He even admitted they reduced his pain, but he just felt better about life being on them.
His doctor just decided to not prescribe opoids for any reason.
My friend is miserable now, and takes too much Ibuprofen.