this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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The answer to the question that made me read the article:
A suprise piece of information i stumbled upon:
That's a gentle way of describing his death (he choked to death after his owner lost the little suction device needed to clear his throat). Poor Mike.
I doubt it's like anything to be a headless chicken. Whatever little consciousness there may have been probably shut off the moment the neck was severed.
From past readings about Mike, it seemed his head wasn't lopped clean off, the hatchet slipped and cut MOST of his head off, but it apparently sliced through his tiny brain, leaving just the brain stem that controlled the basic functions like heartbeat and breathing.
There's no reason to believe that you need consciousness in order to feel pain, panic at being unable to breathe, etc.
If the word consciousness doesn't mean anything then sure. Just like there's no reason to believe rocks can't feel pain.
If you go by a layman's definition of the term, then maybe so, but the way people who actually study this stuff define consciousness is that it's the fact of subjective experience - that it's like something to be.
Without consciousness there's no place for any pleasant or unpleasant experiences to arise at all. It's kind of like saying you don't need water to have waves. No, you do. Water is where those waves appear.
According to our current models, yes.
Assuming said models' brainstems're attached to consciousness(es), of course. Not many do. 🤫