A Model of Pain: a context for locating empathy

Previously, I had written more humanistically on the concept of hate. I do not remember if I tied it to pain - but here are today's thoughts on the subject. Remember, pain is the very definition of negative feedback in a cybernetic system. Hate is simply pain in the first person. Pain is an objective phenomena. Life is defined by pain, and conscious life is defined by hate. If you have no pain, you have no definition of life, and once you become conscious of pain, you embody hate. These are fundamental, nearly mechanistic definitions. Now let us draw out the concept a little farther.

Pain doesn't spring from a vacuum. It is evolved. In order for systems to understand each other, it is important that they understand each other's mechanisms for negative feedback. It is important that they understand each other's pains. However, it is possible for one system to recognise pain in another system, without the first system subjecting itself to the second system's experience of pain. If we return to the vocabulary of empathy, this would be called an un-empathic recognition of pain.

Personally I believe that an un-empathic recognition of pain is optimal for civilisation. However, empathy remains central to the identity of many people. They experience empathy, and without an option to switch it on and off, they adopt empathic reactions as a fundamental component of their conscious identity.

I do not wish for empaths to be more pained than they already are - in fact I encourage them to be more apathetic! However, I do not wish for empathy to persist in the future of civilisations. Nevertheless, I try to cooperate with those who identify with empathy, and to avoid causing them more pain.

Yes, if I could flick a switch and eradicate all empathy from civilisation, I would do it already. However, I remain open to an appreciation of empathy as a sentimental component of our evolutionary history. Though I do not particularly want to see more of it, I am quite aware that it may persist forever.

On we go. Pain is forever, empathy is better left in the past.