Consciousness

[Ahriman]

That's what I'm saying, it isn't complex at all, thinking it's complex is arrogant and stupid.

Calling people "stupid" because they don't agree with you is pretty arrogant too.

But that's not even what I'm doing?

[GrandizerII]

That's what I'm saying, it isn't complex at all, thinking it's complex is arrogant and stupid.

On the contrary, thinking it's not complex (as in hard to explain) is what's arrogant and stupid.

But hey, maybe I'm missing something here. Do enlighten me with your wisdom.

[Ahriman]

That's what I'm saying, it isn't complex at all, thinking it's complex is arrogant and stupid.

On the contrary, thinking it's not complex (as in hard to explain) is what's arrogant and stupid.

But hey, maybe I'm missing something here. Do enlighten me with your wisdom.

Well it's not complex because consciousness is just brain stuff and everyone's brain is almost exactly the same.

[GrandizerII]

On the contrary, thinking it's not complex (as in hard to explain) is what's arrogant and stupid.

But hey, maybe I'm missing something here. Do enlighten me with your wisdom.

Well it's not complex because consciousness is just brain stuff and everyone's brain is almost exactly the same.

I had really bad stomachache the other day. Was that awful feeling of pain "just brain stuff"? What do you even mean by that?

[Ahriman]

Well it's not complex because consciousness is just brain stuff and everyone's brain is almost exactly the same.

I had really bad stomachache the other day. Was that awful feeling of pain "just brain stuff"? What do you even mean by that?

Yeah, it's just brain stuff, because your brain is what's processing all of that pain.

[The Grand Nudger]

-second largest collection of neurons in your body.  Nociception is mostly located in the spinal cord, though.  All of that feeding into the brain.

I could go with it, though, yeah.  Pain is brain stuff.  It's also one of the more obvious means of control, and specifically predictive control, in model based control theories.   Pain avoidance conditioning. What if I told you that there are plants which appear to pull this off too?

[GrandizerII]

I had really bad stomachache the other day. Was that awful feeling of pain "just brain stuff"? What do you even mean by that?

Yeah, it's just brain stuff, because your brain is what's processing all of that pain.

How does the feeling of pain arise exactly? Could neurochemical activities in the nervous system really make "alive" this feeling just through processing?

[Ahriman]

Yeah, it's just brain stuff, because your brain is what's processing all of that pain.

How does the feeling of pain arise exactly? Could neurochemical activities in the nervous system really make "alive" this feeling just through processing?

The initial pain is processed immediately, and made worse by said neurochemical activities in the nervous system.

[GrandizerII]

How does the feeling of pain arise exactly? Could neurochemical activities in the nervous system really make "alive" this feeling just through processing?

The initial pain is processed immediately, and made worse by said neurochemical activities in the nervous system.

Ok, sure, Ahriman. I at least admire your high level of confidence here.

[The Grand Nudger]

How does the feeling of pain arise exactly?

Exactly how needs a more exact question....though, as with photosynthesis, all answers will be incomplete.  Different types of pain arise through different means.  Temperature apparatus doesn't work the same way pressure apparatus does, which doesn't work the same way chemical apparatus does - and we haven't even gotten out of detection yet.  

Could neurochemical activities in the nervous system really make "alive" this feeling just through processing?

Really, alive, and just doing the heavy lifting in this question.  

In short, sure, why not?  That's what it looks like when we go looking, at least.  We actually know quite a bit about the information processing of pain.  It get's alot of funding and, fwiw, we've been exploring the subject since before we fell out of the trees.

*my favorite bit is pain modulation, personally. It's particularly informative in context, not because knowing how it works is a full description of consciousness, but because knowing how it works is a very good demonstration of the errors we make in framing our questions about it. We're justified in saying that there are things about consciousness we don't know which we would like to, but we're very often wrong about which things those are.