"Pain is instructive." Read that in a book once, don't remember which one.
But pain really is what you make of it. "Damage sensor" or "threat
indicator" are such limited possibilities. Pain is "ecstasy," pain is
"erotic," pain is "illuminating," pain is a means to the transcendental.
Nick — as a fan of Pierce's triads, have you ever explored J.G. Bennet's
epistemological triads?
also, if the Turing machine, the programmer, and the 'user' form an
appropriate triad, might it be said that the Turing machine 'knows' what
the programmer programmed and the user observes? None of the three
elements "possess" that knowledge in isolation, but 'triadically' they
all do.
dave west
On 4/29/19 7:53 AM, Nick Thompson wrote:
Steve,
Oh, all right. Threat of damage. I am truly puzzled by the function
of pain. I mean, pain in my ankle causes me to favor my ankle. But
what good is gut pain? Or headaches, for instance. Clearly, from an
evolutionary standpoint, the function of pain must be what it leads
you to do. My heart pain was in my elbow. What’s with that?
Well, you say; the body can’t get everything right. But those
mistakes seem really bonehead ones.
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
*From:*Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Steven
A Smith
*Sent:* Sunday, April 28, 2019 10:37 PM
*To:* friam@redfish.com
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] A Question For Tomorrow
Nick -
>I think of “pain” as a damage sensor.
I think of "pain" as a "threat" indicator. A great deal of the pain
I've experienced in my life was not really commensurate with the
damage that has already occurred.
Touching a hot stove doesn't always lead to significant damage if you
react quickly to the pain.
In my late teens, I had a dentist tell me that the "pain" I was
feeling from his drill was really from the *heat* of the drill, not
direct damage to any nerve. I had complained that the novacaine was
more disturbing than anything I felt when he was working on me. He
said "I can do it without novacaine next time, if you prefer". He
said that the time he saves not waiting for the novacaine to kick in
allows him to run the drill at a lower speed and go more
carefully/slowly and that if I was willing to signal him if I began to
feel pain by raising a hand and promised not to panic, he would prefer
that. Sure enough, It worked and I haven't had novacaine since
excepting one root canal. Most dentists seem perfectly familiar with
this alternative. The dentist who did the root canal *promised* me
that no matter how slow she went, the process of killing and cleaning
out the root would be the most excruciating pain I ever felt without
novacaine. I didn't argue. I felt more than a little during the deep
file-plunging.
I don't associate a headache with "damage" though I do acknowledge it
as some kind of warning... often nothing more than mild dehydration.
I could pop a few ibuprofen and ignore the pain or I could drink a
glass or two of water and take the lesson my body was offering me.
A concussion or tumor or aneurism? A different matter I suppose.
I *HATE* ice-cream headaches, even though I know they will pass
quickly if I quite gulping it down. My partner Mary doesn't get
ice-cream headaches, in her case the same class of pain settled under
one of her shoulder blades. Once again, a glass of water is a good
remedy for me...
I have never had "phantom pain" but that is another example I think of
how Pain != Damage?
Glad to Frank's surgery (apparently) went well. I hope he's back on
the Tennis Court soon!
- Steve
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