Suble secondary sensory system in skin

[nancylebov]

...the human body has an entirely unique and separate sensory system aside from the nerves that give most of us the ability to touch and feel. Surprisingly, this sensory network is located throughout our blood vessels and sweat glands, and is for most people, largely imperceptible.

This was discovered by studying two people who can't feel pain, but who nonetheless have normal lives.

It may explain what's going on with the author of Waking, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident, but who became fascinated by yoga and eventually became a yoga teacher. He never recovered movement or full sensation, but he felt a sort of ghost awareness of his lower body which was quite useful for him.

The discovery of a second sensory system in the skin relates to why I'm dubious about uploading my mind into a computer. Aside from that we're not even close to the technology, I place a high value on the texture of my experience, and I don't trust the sort of people who are interested in uploading to aim for high fidelity.

I'd seen the link on reddit, but thanks for enegim for reminding me about it.

Comments

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

As someone with fibromyalgia, this makes a *whole* lot of sense.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Could you expand on that?

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

It would explain a lot about how the pain behaves, and why conventional pain relief has limited effect.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this; it probably won't come up in my diss but things that inform my grasp of the overall issue are always great.

[avram]

That article makes me want to impose fines for misuse of "unique".

[jimhenley.livejournal.com]

Did I mention my eventual conclusion that "very unique" could be a perfectly sensible thing to say?

[avram]

I don't recall whether you've mentioned it, but I realized some time back that a thing can be unique in more than one way, and therefore one thing can be more unique than another.

[jimhenley.livejournal.com]

"I place a high value on the texture of my experience, and I don't trust the sort of people who are interested in uploading to aim for high fidelity."

This is Nancy winning.

how very cool

[wolfdancer.livejournal.com]

had a person that was a para plegic when i was in nursing. ?He stared he could feel when the blanket was on his legs, even tho the dr thought he was nuts.