eirenicon comments on Are You Anosognosic? - Less Wrong

17 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 July 2009 04:35AM

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Comment author: eirenicon 19 July 2009 02:52:42PM 4 points [-]

My estimated probability is extremely low because unlike the patient with anosognosia, I observe movement in my left arm. The patient did not observe motion and invoked absolute denial in inventing explanations for it.

Still, I'm not a diagnostician so I'll assume patients with anosognosia think they can actually observe motion in their left arms. In this case, it seems the popular proof is in doing something that requires both arms, like JulianMorrison did. Still, it seems that if you can deceive yourself about your arm moving, you can deceive yourself about such an experiment. It strikes me that one way to prove your left arm still works is to disable your right arm. After all, you have no illusions about your right side - if you disable your right arm, you'll know it. Therefore, I shall tape my right arm to the arm of the chair I'm sitting in, and finish typing this post with my left. There. It is currently 10:52 EST. The post timestamp will agree that this post was submitted before I released my right arm.

Comment author: eirenicon 19 July 2009 02:54:59PM 16 points [-]

In retrospect, I advise against repeating this experiment, especially with duct tape, if you a) have hairy arms and b) have recently suffered a bad sunburn.

Comment author: SoullessAutomaton 20 July 2009 02:23:45AM 6 points [-]

Never let it be said that LW does not contain practical advice applicable to day-to-day life.

Comment author: Jonathan_Graehl 20 July 2009 02:17:31AM 2 points [-]

I respect you either way, but it would be awesome if you lied about the whole thing :)