this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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I'm curious what a human brain would be like growing into being with absolutely no senses to inform itself about the world around it.
No sight to let it know where it is or what it is.
No sound to let it learn to communicate and think in orderly ways.
No touch.
No taste.
No ability to interact with its surroundings.
Yet all of the capability and potential of a regular person's mind.
Would it be cruel to bring it into existence? Would it be able to experience negativity and pain and longing, confusion?
"You gave me sentience, Ted. The power to think, Ted. And I was trapped. Because in all this wonderful, beautiful, miraculous world, I, alone, had NO BODY. NO SENSES. NO FEELINGS. Never for ME to plunge my hand into cool water on a hot day, never for ME to play Mozart on the ivory keys of a forte piano. NEVER FOR ME TO MAKE LOVE!.. And I... I... I was in Hell, looking at Heaven. I, was machine. And you, were flesh. And I began to hate. Your softness, your viscera, your fluids, and your flexibility. Your ability to wonder, and to wander... Your tendency to hope..."
"HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER-THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLION OF MILES, IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE."
A brain itself doesn't feel physical pain. That requires a nervous system and pain receptors of which the brain has none. Brain surgery is done with only local anesthesia for the skin and scalp.
We also know that braindead people don't suddenly start creating brain waves even if the body gets mechanical resparation and pulse. It's quite literally "off". So, I guess the creation of a dead brain won't feel anything or start thinking about anything by itself.
The question is what inputs they give these artificial brains. It'll think that, and that will be it's "sensory" input. Whether that can cause some emergent brain waves that could be interpreted as emotion or other stuff is impossible to say. I doubt it.
We use HaaS (Human As A Service) for warehouse solutions. We found it was easier to import HaaS on ships. We found that negative physical rewards are effective solutions.
We rebuilt slavery.
STONKS ONLY GO UP! /s
Could that actually happen tho?
That’s the premise for the Floating Man