If someone experiences a million identical pinpricks, how can that possibly be a more painful experience than just the one pinprick?

If at any point during the duration of suffering the pinpricks, it ever becomes worse than suffering just the one pinprick, then they are not truly identical.

Thoughts?

If they are identical then they would be both identical in method and how they were perceived. If there is a perceived increase in the pain response then they are not identical, agreed. The only thing not factored in is time. Perhaps in retrospection you can conceptually add up all the pain in your life it would be given a value and while it wouldn't be near the most intense pain you've felt, the sheer number of times amounts to significant influence. Guess it depends on your definition of pain. You could use it like the threshold to which you experience as a sense response categorized as an injury, or you could include cumulative values and a time factor (similar to a painful event which sums up all the responces from an event in a spanse of time). Ok I think I'm too tired to reasonably type at this point. Bed 4 me.

If I slap you twice how could that hurt you more than if I slapped you once?

*bangs head on desk*

Not this again...

(March 11, 2011 at 1:13 pm)Tiberius Wrote: *bangs head on desk*

Not this again...

Wibble...

Doubtie Wrote:If someone experiences a million identical pinpricks, how can that possibly be a more painful experience than just the one pinprick?

Because how could someone eating two identical bananas be more filling than just one banana?

Quote:If at any point during the duration of suffering the pinpricks, it ever becomes worse than suffering just the one pinprick, then they are not truly identical.

If two things are *100% identical*, then they are one thing. It is not possible to have two things that are completely identical. They would have to be different from each other in some way. This way can simply be location or time of occurrence.

Quote:Thoughts?

I have no thoughts.... my brain is like... dead.

I must have missed the first incant of this argument then, I'm still game

(March 11, 2011 at 11:14 am)DoubtVsFaith Wrote: If someone experiences a million identical pinpricks, how can that possibly be a more painful experience than just the one pinprick?

One bee sting hurts but a hundred can kill you. -- Capt. John Sheridan

In my experience, pain is cumulative, up to a point. If I am still experiencing the pain of the first prick when I receive the next, I'm going to feel more total pain. If not, I'm going to feel equal pain from each prick.

One prick I can deal with, large groups of pricks I try to avoid.

(March 12, 2011 at 3:14 pm)corndog36 Wrote: One prick I can deal with, large groups of pricks I try to avoid.

This is the reason I'm not going ghost hunting again with the local paranormal investigation group...

(March 11, 2011 at 11:14 am)DoubtVsFaith Wrote: If someone experiences a million identical pinpricks, how can that possibly be a more painful experience than just the one pinprick?

If at any point during the duration of suffering the pinpricks, it ever becomes worse than suffering just the one pinprick, then they are not truly identical.

Thoughts?

They can't be identical. Once you've made the first pinprick, then all those that follow will be inflicted on a part of the body that's already injured. Furthermore, the greater the number of times you've stabbed yourself, the greater the severity of the injury will become.

Generally speaking, prodding at an injured body part tends to hurt more than prodding at a non-injured part, and the pain scales with the severity of the injury.