[extropy-chat] Re: Tommy (Was: Consciousness is a process in multi-dimensional time!)

[ben]

--- Adrian Tymes wrote:

 > It seems like this is the kind of thing that actually could be
done in experiment - on a mouse, at least.
<snip>

 > ...which leads me to wonder if, perhaps, someone has actually
 > done that experiment.

Unlikely, i would think.
Easy enough to sever all the afferent nerves, but they would have to 
include the somatosensory nerves involved in physiological feedback 
loops, so how would you keep the mouse alive?
Then there's the big problem - reconnecting them all.

Our current technology would probably botch the first problem, and be 
incapable of solving the second. Anyway, how could you tell whether the 
animal's behaviour afterwards was mainly due to the period of time with 
no inputs or to the procedure used to reconnect its nerves? Suppose you 
reconnected the wrong ones? it could be perfectly sane, and trying to 
navigate the maze, but in fact be furiously chewing it's own tail, 
because of crossed wires.

ben