Bugs and insects might feel pain. Fish might.

[Brickjectivity]

Do insects feel pain?

Well isn't that something. Insects might feel pain, but the verdict is not in on it. They respond to stimuli, but pain may or may not be something they can experience.

Do fish feel pain? Not as humans do, study suggests

Says fish don't feel pain in the same way we do.

It's Official: Fish Feel Pain | Science | Smithsonian

Says fish feel pain.

Well how about that? Will this change your behavior towards fish, bugs and insects?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I still stand by my rationalizing it's ok for me to go fishing because I myself have had needles in my lip.

 

[Jake5588]

It won't change mine. I always assumed that animals feel pain, and prefer to not harm them. With the exceptions of being dangerous/nuisance, and me needing to omnom. Even then, it's entirely possible to defend myself or provide sustenance for myself with respect.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Well how about that? Will this change your behavior towards fish, bugs and insects?

Yep, every living thing feels and responds. Even things that we in the West don't think of as living feels and responds--probably not at all like humans do. But then, I can't really prove that anyone else feels pain, or pleasure.

No, no changes. Living entails harm to others...and you've got to expect that at least some others will try and maybe succeed in harming you. I've been trying to minimize my harming others, and I try to at least respect those that I harm.

 

[Stevicus]

Well how about that? Will this change your behavior towards fish, bugs and insects?

Probably not. I don't eat fish all that much. I don't like bugs. Flies can be particularly annoying. I didn't know they could feel any pain, but sometimes, I think they're just asking for it.

 

[suncowiam]

I feel pain too.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I feel pain too.

Itching is also not pleasant, especially knowing that you are itching and wondering whether you are itching.

 

[bubbleguppy]

Well, I'm pretty sure every animal with pain receptors feels pain. I cannot recall any animal that doesn't have pain receptors... they're pretty good at keeping animal organisms from dying. Of course I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain any animal with any nerve endings can feel pain.

 

[idav]

Do insects feel pain?

Well isn't that something. Insects might feel pain, but the verdict is not in on it. They respond to stimuli, but pain may or may not be something they can experience.

Do fish feel pain? Not as humans do, study suggests

Says fish don't feel pain in the same way we do.

It's Official: Fish Feel Pain | Science | Smithsonian

Says fish feel pain.

Well how about that? Will this change your behavior towards fish, bugs and insects?

All vertebrates have nervous systems including fish reptile and mammal. However that doesnt mean they all have the same capacity for consciousness and memory that many mammals have. Reptiles have a lower form of brain function for example but its complicated.
What Are the Structural Differences in the Brain between Animals That Are Self-Aware (Humans, Apes) and Other Vertebrates?

 

[Jumi]

Don't know why someone thought they didn't? This reminds me of the thing about animals not having emotions.

 

[Valjean]

Well, I'm pretty sure every animal with pain receptors feels pain. I cannot recall any animal that doesn't have pain receptors... they're pretty good at keeping animal organisms from dying. Of course I could be wrong, but I'm almost certain any animal with any nerve endings can feel pain.

Nocireceptors can be assumed to transmit messages of damage, but sensory receptors don't need to be connected to conscious awareness to work. The nervous system can function on auto-pilot.

There are totally blind people who can walk down a cluttered hallway or catch a ball tossed to them without any conscious awareness of what they're doing.

That said, fish appear to feel pain. They respond as we would to a pinprick or a chronic lesion, but, then, we can never experience the consciousness of another.

I interpret my neighbor's actions by my own experience of the world. I can't state definitively that he is not an unconscious automaton, but, as he reacts as I would, I give him the benefit of the doubt.

The links are interesting. The first arrives at a politically expedient conclusion. The second cites more actual studies.
The first maintains that fish don't produce endorphins, and are unresponsive to exogenous opioids. The second says exactly the opposite. This strikes me as a relevant disagreement, which shouldn't be difficult to reconcile.

In the meantime, I shall not support the exploitation of fish.

 

[Polymath257]

Hmmm....so now we *can* determine consciousness in other beings? Are physical correlates of consciousness a way to determine if something is conscious?

 

[Polymath257]

One concern here: the term 'fish' is very, very broad biologically. It is on the order of being a 'mammal'. So it is completely possible, in my mind, that some do feel pain and others do not. It may well vary from species to species.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Yep, every living thing feels and responds. Even things that we in the West don't think of as living feels and responds--probably not at all like humans do. But then, I can't really prove that anyone else feels pain, or pleasure.

That's probably why it's taken us so long to formally recognize other animals as having more than just the most basic of instinct driven impulses, or at least one of the reasons. We have tried for so long to insist that everything about us is different and superior to other animals, and when trying to determine if other animals have "human qualities" we have always applied human standards. But humans are humans, dogs are dogs, elephants are elephants, and it stands to reason we are all going to have our own ways of doing and thinking about things.

Don't know why someone thought they didn't? This reminds me of the thing about animals not having emotions.

Emotions, self-awareness, thought, basically the ability to be anything more than purely instinct driven automatons.

 

[Shaul]

With artificial intelligence the internet will soon be sentient. Some people should stop posting now to prevent causing the World Wide Web pain.

 

[Polymath257]

With artificial intelligence the internet will soon be sentient. Some people should stop posting now to prevent causing the World Wide Web pain.

They already do.

 

[Stanyon]

The smell of freshly cut grass is the smell of grass screaming
(I just mowed for the first time this year)

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I always accepted that they did. I even feel bad killing bugs.

 

[Valjean]

The smell of freshly cut grass is the smell of grass screaming
(I just mowed for the first time this year)

Why would a sessile organism develop pain receptors or the ability to experience pain. How would such a metabolically expensive, complex, but useless system be selected for?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Why would a sessile organism develop pain receptors or the ability to experience pain. How would such a metabolically expensive, complex, but useless system be selected for?

Maybe because it isn't really such a metabolically expensive, complex, or useless system, for them?

Considered in the context of an ecological community made up of populations of such sessile creatures, who are preyed upon by a variety of mobile species, and it's always possible that sensing pain, responding to it even if only metabolically, and communicating with other members of the community, no matter how rudimentary such communication might be, would increase the survival of the populations--because evolution works on populations, not on individuals.