Re: Qualia Question

How about pain?

Quite possibly, complex qualia evolved from simpler forms and what
could be simpler than pain? It is possibly the first qualia to evolve
and it might even have evolved in creatures (much?) 'simpler' than us.
Also it's selective advantage is easy to imagine.

If we could arrive at an explanation of our senstaion of pain in terms
of neuron/chemical activity. I'd be willing to bet that the rest of our
qualia could be derived simply by adding complexity.

We can imagine an adaptive mechanism that predates pain but fulfilled a
similar role. Some form of Skinnerean reflex that caused the organism
to recoil from, lets say, a fire, but caused none of the mental anguish
we humans associate with getting burnt. The Skinnerean reflex as I just
desribed it is perfectly describable in terms of behaviour and the
underlying physiology. There is no 'pain' and the mechanism involved
could probably be built out of metal by a clever engineer, or modelled
on a computer.

I think it is clear that when you or I burn ourselves there is
something else going on. In addition to all the physiological and
behavioural activity above, we also 'feel' it. How do we feel it? How
could the difference between the Skinnerean creature and us be
described in terms of neural activity?

There are suggestions in this thread that our 'feeling of pain' comes
from a another level of monitioring that monitors the basic Skinnerean
processes. I suspect there might actually be something in that, but how
would the additional level of monitoring be anything other than more
physiological processes - the analogy would be a mechanical detecting
machine attached to the engineer's Skinneran Reflex Machine mentioned.
(Of course we could change all with HMS Beagale's 'conscious
differentiation' but arriving at consciousness is the goal of this
question.)

Sorry if I'm to much a newb to be throwing down the gauntlet in this
manner, but this a genuine question I'd genuinely like to hear people's
thoughts on.

.

Relevant Pages

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