Question for Geniuses.

OK, now that I've gotten all the geniuses to click on this... I want to know everyones thoughts on the following question.

This may not be the right forum but I'm hoping to get better responses here than in OOT.

A friend and I are debating whether or not somebody born with 0 of the 5 standard senses, and fully paralyzed, would ever know that they were alive?

Example: A baby is born fully paralyzed and without the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hear.

Would their person ever understand that it was alive???

[DougShrapnel]

This baby would certainly die, without ever knowing it was alive.

Why would it die?

Say it doesn't die. Say it is paralyzed during birth somehow and it is fed intravaneously.

This person lives to be 20 years old. Does this person know they are alive?

Could he/she feel his/her heart beating? Could this person dream? What would this person's brain dream up? This person never really had any stimulated experiences...what would it dream of? Blackness? Would he or she know they were dreaming?

Discuss.

[Dominic]

whatdoes it matter if the person isparalyzed or not? Without the other senses, it still won't know what it is or have any feeling whatsoever - not even pain.

Only sensation I think he could feel would be if it fell off a high place.

[brassnuts]

I don't think it would have much of an understanding of its existence. By definition, this being would be without sentience. It's brain would operate on a very basic and most likey subconscious level. Not only is brain developement dependent upon input, but the only functions I can think of the brain performing would involountary reactions to things like hunger and thirst.

[RJT]

I like the question.

I don’t know too much about science and it might have a relatively basic scientific answer. We’ll see, here. I am curious to see if the scientific answers are theoretical or certain.

If there is not a scientifically certain answer, then of course, the answer is going to be something like “we would never know for sure, but most probably.…”

I do know he wouldn't play a mean pin-ball, though.

[KidPokerX]

Good question.

Although the baby would not live a normal life by any means, I do think it would survive (but not for long). His brain would be nonfunctional except for the most primative needs (sleep, thirst, hunger). There would be very little to no brain activity. My guess is this baby's body would shut down after a few years.
Intereting idea though, since this has never been recorded in history all we have are theories.

[mostsmooth]

[ QUOTE ]

Example: A baby is born fully paralyzed and without the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hear.

[/ QUOTE ]
did we really need this example? i mean, we ARE geniuses! plus, your example simply repeated your question. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Yeh, I think that the baby wouldn't last too long.
And I don't think it would know that it's alive.
Even normal babies aren't conscious of being a living being until around one( somewhere around there at least), let's say. And that's with the normal stimuli. I think that the totally paralyzed and unaware person, even is they survived to twenty, would be forever stuck in the pre-conscious mind of a newborn.

Shooby

[Godfather80]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, now that I've gotten all the geniuses to click on this... I want to know everyones thoughts on the following question.

This may not be the right forum but I'm hoping to get better responses here than in OOT.

A friend and I are debating whether or not somebody born with 0 of the 5 standard senses, and fully paralyzed, would ever know that they were alive?

Example: A baby is born fully paralyzed and without the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hear.

Would their person ever understand that it was alive???

[/ QUOTE ]

Most fully sentient people in this world do not understand that they are alive. Why should a senseless infant be any different?