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.
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.