But I find it really hard to imagine how I could still value human life, if I would measure everything on a scale of happiness and entirely lacked the dimension of pain. Can one still feel the equivalent of compassion without pain? It’s hard to see myself having fun at the funeral of my parents.
Well, I think you could still feel compassion, or something like it (without the sympathy, maybe; just concern) - even while happy, I wouldn’t want someone else to be unhappy. But on the other hand, it does seem like there’s a connection, just because of how our brains are wired. You need to be able to at least imagine unhappiness for empathy, I suppose.
I read an article about a man with brain damage, and it seems relevant to this situation. Apparently, an accident left him with damage to a certain part of his brain, and it resulted in the loss of unhappy emotions. He would constantly experience mild euphoria. It seems like a good deal, but his mother told a story about visiting him in the hospital; his sister had died in the meantime, and when she told him, he paused for a second, said something along the lines of “oh” or “shame”… then went back to cracking jokes. She was quoted as saying he “didn’t seem like her son any more.”
I’ve always felt the same way that you do, however. I would very much like to redesign myself to be pain-free and pleasure-maximized. One of the first objections I hear to this is “but pain is useful, because it lets you know when you’re being damaged.” Okay—then we’ll simply have a “damage indicator”, and leave the “pull back from hot object” reflex alone. Similarly, I think concerns about compassion could be solved (or at least mitigated) by equipping ourselves with an “off” switch for the happiness—at the funeral, we allow ourselves sadness… then when the grief becomes unbearable, it’s back to euphoria.
Very good real world example about the guy with brain damage! Interesting case, any chance of finding this story online? A quick and dirty google search on my part didn’t turn up anything.
Also, nice idea with the switch. I fully acknowledge, that there are some situations when I somehow have the need to feel pain—funerals being one occasion. Your idea with the switch would be brilliantly simple. Unfortunately, my spider-senses tell me the redesigning part itself will be anything but.
Case studies of brain damage are pure gold when it comes to figuring out “what would happen to me if I remove/augment my brain in such and such a way”.
I was about to come back (actually on my way to the computer) and regretfully inform you that I had no idea where I had seen it… but then a key phrase came back to me, and voila! (I had the story a little wrong: it was a stroke that caused the damage, and it was a leukemia relapse the sister had.)
The page has a lot of other interesting case studies involving the brain, as well. I need to give the whole site a re-browse… it’s been quite a while since I’ve looked at it. I seem to remember it being like an atheism-oriented LessWrong.
Thank you very much for going through the trouble of finding all these case-studies! :)
(For anyone else interested, I should remark these aren’t the actual studies, but quick summaries within an atheistic context that is concerned with disproving the notion of a soul—but there are references to all the books within which these symptoms are described.)
The Alien Hand Syndrome is always good for a serious head-scratching indeed.
Well, I think you could still feel compassion, or something like it (without the sympathy, maybe; just concern) - even while happy, I wouldn’t want someone else to be unhappy. But on the other hand, it does seem like there’s a connection, just because of how our brains are wired. You need to be able to at least imagine unhappiness for empathy, I suppose.
I read an article about a man with brain damage, and it seems relevant to this situation. Apparently, an accident left him with damage to a certain part of his brain, and it resulted in the loss of unhappy emotions. He would constantly experience mild euphoria. It seems like a good deal, but his mother told a story about visiting him in the hospital; his sister had died in the meantime, and when she told him, he paused for a second, said something along the lines of “oh” or “shame”… then went back to cracking jokes. She was quoted as saying he “didn’t seem like her son any more.”
I’ve always felt the same way that you do, however. I would very much like to redesign myself to be pain-free and pleasure-maximized. One of the first objections I hear to this is “but pain is useful, because it lets you know when you’re being damaged.” Okay—then we’ll simply have a “damage indicator”, and leave the “pull back from hot object” reflex alone. Similarly, I think concerns about compassion could be solved (or at least mitigated) by equipping ourselves with an “off” switch for the happiness—at the funeral, we allow ourselves sadness… then when the grief becomes unbearable, it’s back to euphoria.
Very good real world example about the guy with brain damage! Interesting case, any chance of finding this story online? A quick and dirty google search on my part didn’t turn up anything.
Also, nice idea with the switch. I fully acknowledge, that there are some situations when I somehow have the need to feel pain—funerals being one occasion. Your idea with the switch would be brilliantly simple. Unfortunately, my spider-senses tell me the redesigning part itself will be anything but.
Case studies of brain damage are pure gold when it comes to figuring out “what would happen to me if I remove/augment my brain in such and such a way”.
I was about to come back (actually on my way to the computer) and regretfully inform you that I had no idea where I had seen it… but then a key phrase came back to me, and voila! (I had the story a little wrong: it was a stroke that caused the damage, and it was a leukemia relapse the sister had.)
The page has a lot of other interesting case studies involving the brain, as well. I need to give the whole site a re-browse… it’s been quite a while since I’ve looked at it. I seem to remember it being like an atheism-oriented LessWrong.
Thank you very much for going through the trouble of finding all these case-studies! :)
(For anyone else interested, I should remark these aren’t the actual studies, but quick summaries within an atheistic context that is concerned with disproving the notion of a soul—but there are references to all the books within which these symptoms are described.)
The Alien Hand Syndrome is always good for a serious head-scratching indeed.