Will a computer ever be able to feel pain?

We do have some functions which are similar to a computer. We use our brains to compute and each cell in our body performs a specific sequence of operations toward some end. Our freedom of choice, self-awareness, and that we use our freedom of choice above all to seek fulfillment of some capacity beyond basic needs seems contrary to a mere "computing process." I am not sure how you would program a computing process to perceive itself lacking, except perhaps that it lacks energy to sustain itself. This is far different than the "lacking," which we experience.

It is a very tough and interesting issue.

In order to answer 'will a computer ever be able to feel pain?' we need to look at how pain fits into the development of living things by natural selection. Sentient creatures feel pain and it's known that to be unable to feel pain or at least discomfort and take avoiding action is necessary for the lives of mobile creatures that are able to take avoiding action. Since computers don't have to move about by themselves by their own energy, any ability for them to feel pain would use unnecessary energy, so , no, they won't be able to feel pain. Robots, however , will be able to feel pain or at least, discomfort, if they do not do so already, and robots are or have inside them computers.

I think by computers, is meant any kind of A.I. developed by human's.

Belinda, how do robots feel pain?

Robots can be engineered to take avoiding actions. In order to do so I believe they must have to contain feed back mechanisms from their environment to their movement controls.I also suppose that the feedback mechanism contains light, sound,heat, internal joint, relative time, or pressure sensors. The feedback mechanism will be of the yes-no sort I suppose from my primitive knowledge about computer language. Pain is similar;there is a pain threshold over which we know that the movement or other stimulus is harmful.

Consciousness of pain is not the same as feeling pain. I doubt if robots will ever be conscious.

Consciousness of pain is not the same as feeling pain.

How can you feel pain, but not be aware that you are feeling pain?

Belinda, Those iRobot vacuum's are programed and embedded with sensors to avoid hitting walls. I am not sure that you could say that they feel pain though. It is programed to avoid harm to itself. In humans and animals the pain is or acts as the program which lets it avoid harm to itself. Pain is more of a mechanism to avoid harm, not necessarily the harm to ones "being," itself.

I second Bermudj that to feel pain is itself to be conscious of pain. There has to be a connection of the pain a "being," experiences and some kind of awareness within "that being," that the pain is limiting or potentially limiting its very being. As pain is a sort of privation of "being itself."

Will a computer ever be able to feel pain? A robot could be programmed to act like it feels pain, but it would just be imitating; it would not actually be suffering. Is there a conceivable way to program a computer so that it actually experiences pain? What do you think?

Another unexisting (because it is wrongly defined) pseudoimportant problem. What do you understand as computer? Your PC? Your PC is not able to feel pain, because it is a tool designed to help us maintain various tasks. It doesnt vary too much from the knife or the torch, it is only slightly more complex. Tools don't feel pain, it's as simple as that. Sure, it is believable that one day we will be able to design a tool which will be so complex that it will experience pain, but it will no longer be a tool, but a living organism. Will we ever achieve it? Sure, it's a fun theory! Everything's is theoretically possible, but is "everything's possible" an issue to discuss?

I really should listen to my friend who says that I have too clear mind to debate with philosophers and I should not irritate that much when I talk with them.

Unless we become what we call God- the living energy and breathe some life into it- it won't, speaking of emotions that is, otherwise if we manage to connect some artificial nerves to its artificial brain it will send the signal and it will feel pain but it won't know it cause it has no mind! ;op

-- Updated July 4th, 2012, 8:52 pm to add the following --

Will a computer ever be able to feel pain? A robot could be programmed to act like it feels pain, but it would just be imitating; it would not actually be suffering. Is there a conceivable way to program a computer so that it actually experiences pain? What do you think?

Another unexisting (because it is wrongly defined) pseudoimportant problem. What do you understand as computer? Your PC? Your PC is not able to feel pain, because it is a tool designed to help us maintain various tasks. It doesnt vary too much from the knife or the torch, it is only slightly more complex. Tools don't feel pain, it's as simple as that. Sure, it is believable that one day we will be able to design a tool which will be so complex that it will experience pain, but it will no longer be a tool, but a living organism. Will we ever achieve it? Sure, it's a fun theory! Everything's is theoretically possible, but is "everything's possible" an issue to discuss?

I really should listen to my friend who says that I have too clear mind to debate with philosophers and I should not irritate that much when I talk with them.

Lol by "too clear mind" you mean too closed-minded? jk

Consciousness of pain is not the same as feeling pain.

How can you feel pain, but not be aware that you are feeling pain?

To be conscious of feeling pain the way that humans are usually conscious of feeling pain is to associate the pain with the feeling of the self. It is 'I' who feel the pain, the 'I ' which is a continuum of memory,knowledge and beliefs.A dog feels pain and suffers too, but possibly has no concept of its self. It learns to associate pain with the stimulus through a simple mechanism of stimulus response as for robots. However suffering of the dog or of the human is unnecessary for robots as suffering is a by product of evolution by natural selection which does not apply to robots.

Consciousness of pain is not the same as feeling pain.

How can you feel pain, but not be aware that you are feeling pain?

To be conscious of feeling pain the way that humans are usually conscious of feeling pain is to associate the pain with the feeling of the self. It is 'I' who feel the pain, the 'I ' which is a continuum of memory,knowledge and beliefs.A dog feels pain and suffers too, but possibly has no concept of its self. It learns to associate pain with the stimulus through a simple mechanism of stimulus response as for robots. However suffering of the dog or of the human is unnecessary for robots as suffering is a by product of evolution by natural selection which does not apply to robots.

Of course a dog is aware that something is wrong.

The question is not of self-awareness or not, but is of whether a computer will ever be able to feel pain on any level.

Bermudj wrote:

Of course a dog is aware that something is wrong.

Sure.If a dog looks in a mirror it sees something, but I doubt if it sees a representation of itself.

Nicholas wrote:

The question is not of self-awareness or not, but is of whether a computer will ever be able to feel pain on any level.

That is the question, but it is more interesting to discover at which level we might ascribe feelings to robots. I suggest that we ascribe sensations to robots at the anatomical or mechanical level, but not at the subjective level. There is no present need for robots to be subjects, and if there ever were such a need and the need were to be fulfilled then robots might inherit the Earth.

Bermudj wrote:

Of course a dog is aware that something is wrong.

Sure.If a dog looks in a mirror it sees something, but I doubt if it sees a representation of itself. It does not need to see an image of itself. Feeling pain, it is aware of discomfort and attempts to take corrective action. Sometimes an image of ourselves may suggest that there is pain, but there is none whatsoever.

To be conscious of feeling pain the way that humans are usually conscious of feeling pain is to associate the pain with the feeling of the self. It is 'I' who feel the pain, the 'I ' which is a continuum of memory,knowledge and beliefs. A dog feels pain and suffers too, but possibly has no concept of its self.

I think this isn't quite right Belinda. It is an inescapable aspect of consciousness or feeling that if something is felt, then it is felt by someone or something. Consciousness itself automatically and inevitably creates an "I", a subject. Of course a dog can't think about its self, but it is implausible to think it doesn't have knowledge, memory and experience of pain. The dog's behaviour is so similar to ours, and its sensory equipment and nervous system are so similar to ours.

It is possible that something like a starfish can respond to certain stimuli by withdrawing, without feeling. We pull our feet away from a pinprick when we are asleep, without consciousness.

[Scott]

Martian Visitor, what you say makes sense as an argument from definition if we use your strict, specific definition of feel and feeling. However, I think the words feel and feeling are actually a lot broader and vague and can refer to the mechanical reaction of a semi-intelligent being presumably with some kind of central nervous system responding to stimuli via a sense such as sight or hearing; in this way to feel can be synonymous with to sense. I agree that this kind of mechanical sensing does not necessarily entail consciousness. Indeed, even a flower will turn towards the light over time, having some minor ability to 'sense' or 'see' or 'feel' or 'observe' the light in a presumably unconscious meaning of the words.