Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!oliveb!pyramid!prls!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Question on Chinese Room Argument Summary: You don't have to be a masochist. But it helps. Keywords: Pain, Experience, Damage, Messengers Message-ID: <45916@linus.UUCP> Date: 5 Mar 89 10:20:39 GMT References: <3369@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <330@esosun.UUCP> Sender: news@linus.UUCP Reply-To: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort) Organization: Koyannisqatsi Enterprises, Amrak Dab, AZ Lines: 24 In article <330@esosun.UUCP> jackson@freyja.css.gov (Jerry Jackson) writes: > Now, because I'm a glutton for punishment... Does anyone really think > someone can be wrong about whether or not they are in pain? Wouldn't > it seem really odd to respond to the statement: "I just stubbed my toe > and boy does it hurt!" with: "No it doesn't." Amputees report feeling "phantom limb pain". Their toe does hurt. Except that they have no toe. Physiologically, we understand that pain signals are still arriving at the somasthetic cortex and lighting up the map sector labelled "left great toe". These examples reveal that we have trouble distinguishing an event (I stubbed my toe, which is now black and blue, and bleeding) from the message arriving at the brains ("the sensors in the left great toe are reporting a disaster"). Where is the pain? Is it in the toe or in the message? --Barry Kort "This message will self-destruct in one week."