happyseaurchin comments on That other kind of status - Less Wrong
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"A rat isn't exactly seeking an optimum level of food, it's seeking an optimum ratio of ventromedial to ventrolateral hypothalamic stimulation, or, in rat terms, a nice, well-fed feeling."
So if I move my hand away from a hot pan, am I actually seeking to: "move my hand away from a hot pan" or
"avoid touching the pan" or
"avoid being burnt" or
"avoid pain receptors in my hand being activated" or
"avoid neural signals in my brain that correspond to pain" or
"avoid the feeling of pain"?
Someone needs to do some buck-stopping or else the master-slave model will turn into a master-slave1-slave2-slave3... model. Although come to think of it, that might me more correct. (EDIT: Note to self, line spacing is weird, I'm off to look in the wiki)
I like this, actually. I think this is very much the model: fractal at different levels of scale. A more integrated person has alignment of the master-slave decisioning at all levels, whereas a discontinuous person may have confusion at different levels which might be expressed as eg unco-ordinated. This applies to the physical, emotional, and other levels of the human condition.