Thursday, January 14, 2010

Senses and Feelings

Humans have five senses, but some animals have others which we don't have such as sonar. We are able to feel things through either emotions or physical feelings. Physical feeling relies on our nerve endings, and emotions on our consciousness, as well as a combination of other things such as our cultural understanding and perception of things, affects by physical comfort and situation, psychological state and others. Is it possible that there are also other ways of feeling which we don't know about in the world? For example, might a rock or a table or a TV set feel something, through some source other than the nerve endings which they don't have or the consciousness they presumably don't have either. If another way of feeling exists which we don't know about, it could also have repercussions for the possibility of artificial intelligence.