A method (preferably involving permanent body modification) that would allow an individual to enjoy pain (physical and emotional.) I theorize that most people would live much happier lives if they were masochists. Imagine: there would no longer be such a thing as an unpleasant sensation. This may currently sound distasteful to you, but your modified self would disagree. Old age would provide an increase in one's quality of life instead of a decrease. People would not dread terminal illness, knowing that they would pass away in utter ecstacy. A practical means by which this worthy goal could be achieved is to somehow remove the portion of the brain which is responsible for pain, and wire the vacant slot to the pleasure-centre. One day, medical technology will advance to such a stage that this can be done. Think of the consequences: in a world filled with masochists (of the kind that I am describing), there would not be such a thing as torture. The concept would be forgotten. Soon, the very idea of suffering will become an abstract, obscure philosophical concept. It may very well be possible to modify a human brain to like everything that happens to it. However, it is also possible to create Douglas Adams' Cow (as described in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe) this way. This would be the undesirable extreme here.
-- dsm, Dec 21 2000

Torture not possible? How about total sensory deprivation?
-- centauri, Dec 21 2000


I already tell my friends that I had mom fixed.
-- reensure, Dec 22 2000


Interesting idea. However, while I agree that it would probably end most torture, I think everyone would end up killing themselves, either on purpose or inadvertently.
-- PotatoStew, Dec 22 2000


It would ruin the anaesthetic market.
-- Detly, Dec 22 2000


Quite.
-- Wingmaster, Jan 09 2007


//there would no longer be such a thing as an unpleasant sensation//

//there would not be such a thing as torture//

<dilemma>
<horn1>Suppose that only physical pain and discomfort were suppressed. Then, other forms of disagreable sensation would remain, and certain forms, including ennui, would probably increase. Torture would persist in the form of humiliation, which is, in any case, its main component.
</horn1>
<horn2>Suppose the contrary. Then, there would be no preferences and no reason to take any action, even the most basic actions of self-preservation. Human life ends.
</horn2>
</dilemma>
-- pertinax, Jan 09 2007



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