Feeling-Matter
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understand the neural code is one of the most intense areas of research in both
experimental and theoretical neuroscience. 1
A question of great interest in neuroscience is whether there is a fundamental
neural grammar, perhaps universal across all species. One might ask whether
nature would have written the code twice, and created different versions of
the experienced quality of feelings for different kinds of animals. Given the
prodigious complexity of the animal Sensorium, it is very unlikely that evolution would have produced different currencies of sensation. We are led to
conclude that almost certainly, animals feel pain, joy and sadness just as we
do, and experience sounds and shapes as we do. For example, an angry fruit
fly (they are easily driven to anger) is probably angry in the same way you are.
The human Sensorium is like the surface of a pond, with no limit to how
intricately varied this surface may become when moved by a transient breeze.
Gentle thrusts from our sense organs are continually shaping and molding the
surface, which trembles and shimmers in myriad contours and shapes. When
our eyes fall on an orchid, for example, the surface of our Sensorium ripples
with the sensation of the triply curving petals and the cunning distribution
of pinks, reds and yellows. When a bird song reaches your ear, it sends little
surges curling and cresting on the surface, and those surges and ripples on your
Sensorium constitute the experience of hearing the various notes.
Many people maintain that an experience is something physical in the brain.
Obviously, at a superficial level that is true, because our brain produces the
modulations of the nervous signals which are the code that produces our
experiences. But by no means can you claim that those modulations are your
experiences, because if the same modulations were applied to the power cord
for your kitchen stove, your stove would not thereby experience feelings. There
is a clear physical component of what we feel: Nerve fibers send modulated
signals to different parts of the brain, and those signals are coded so they give
rise to the different feelings.
As an important example, there are cells in the body called nociceptors
which, when activated, send specialized signals to the brain which are coded
as pain. The signals travel along nerve fibers called C-fibers and “notify” the
brain that the body area from which they originate has been damaged. It is the
specific way these signals are coded that cause us to feel pain. If the same signals
were coded differently, we would have a different sensation. This simple fact
makes it amply clear that the physical brain is something quite other than the
feeling and experiencing mind.
The brain sends coded information, and somehow (nobody knows how) it
reaches the mind (nobody knows what mind is) and instills a certain subjective
feeling (nobody knows what feeling is though we’re all familiar with it.) The
53
understand the neural code is one of the most intense areas of research in both
experimental and theoretical neuroscience. 1
A question of great interest in neuroscience is whether there is a fundamental
neural grammar, perhaps universal across all species. One might ask whether
nature would have written the code twice, and created different versions of
the experienced quality of feelings for different kinds of animals. Given the
prodigious complexity of the animal Sensorium, it is very unlikely that evolution would have produced different currencies of sensation. We are led to
conclude that almost certainly, animals feel pain, joy and sadness just as we
do, and experience sounds and shapes as we do. For example, an angry fruit
fly (they are easily driven to anger) is probably angry in the same way you are.
The human Sensorium is like the surface of a pond, with no limit to how
intricately varied this surface may become when moved by a transient breeze.
Gentle thrusts from our sense organs are continually shaping and molding the
surface, which trembles and shimmers in myriad contours and shapes. When
our eyes fall on an orchid, for example, the surface of our Sensorium ripples
with the sensation of the triply curving petals and the cunning distribution
of pinks, reds and yellows. When a bird song reaches your ear, it sends little
surges curling and cresting on the surface, and those surges and ripples on your
Sensorium constitute the experience of hearing the various notes.
Many people maintain that an experience is something physical in the brain.
Obviously, at a superficial level that is true, because our brain produces the
modulations of the nervous signals which are the code that produces our
experiences. But by no means can you claim that those modulations are your
experiences, because if the same modulations were applied to the power cord
for your kitchen stove, your stove would not thereby experience feelings. There
is a clear physical component of what we feel: Nerve fibers send modulated
signals to different parts of the brain, and those signals are coded so they give
rise to the different feelings.
As an important example, there are cells in the body called nociceptors
which, when activated, send specialized signals to the brain which are coded
as pain. The signals travel along nerve fibers called C-fibers and “notify” the
brain that the body area from which they originate has been damaged. It is the
specific way these signals are coded that cause us to feel pain. If the same signals
were coded differently, we would have a different sensation. This simple fact
makes it amply clear that the physical brain is something quite other than the
feeling and experiencing mind.
The brain sends coded information, and somehow (nobody knows how) it
reaches the mind (nobody knows what mind is) and instills a certain subjective
feeling (nobody knows what feeling is though we’re all familiar with it.) The