Life Hurts

 Life hurts


Very early in the course of the evolution of life on earth, avoidance of noxious elements becomes critical, and some sort of sensory reception in this regard an important component of a primitive input and output system, enabling a wormlike creature to wiggle away from danger, and the development of a nervous system from which brains eventually arise, enabling more efficient avoidance of harm, a system with pain receptors in the periphery and complex behavioral responses to these inputs.


If being alive didn't hurt sometimes, primitive creatures would not have survived or procreated, and larged brained beings would not have evolved.


When a brain is big enough, complex enough, consciousness emerges as a phase transition, a repulsive stimulus is associated with an emotion, and the sensory experience humans recognize and describe as pain, common to all conscious nonverbal creatures as well.


Large brained conscious creatures may experience pain despite the absence of physical or chemical offenders in the environment. The triggers may be experiential. Words may hurt, as well as the large variety of events we are likely to encounter during life, resulting in emotional pain, sadness, anger, despondency and depression. 


We change our behaviors and goals based upon the valence of these emotions, avoid pain, and seek comfort and happiness. We learn to deal effectively with these uninvited intrusions and ultimately become happier as a result, while never expecting to be pain-free at all times


The rare disorder called congenital insensitivity to pain is potentially lethal, and surviving without pain is paradoxically far more difficult than living with an intact and highly functional and adaptive pain system.


Aubrey Lieberman 

2/16/25

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