this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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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. That existence has qualia.
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.