First, that the limbs of your “dream self” aren’t mapped to your brain’s sensory homonculus in the same way that your limbs are at all. (I find that likely.)
Second, that the limbs of your “dream self” are mapped to your brain’s sensory homonculus in the same way that your limbs are, but that your brain constructed the narrative of the dream in such a way that the signals coming from the portion of your sensory homonculus ordinarily mapped to, say, your arm are interpreted as coming from a tail instead.
Given what I felt (or ‘felt’, as the case may be), your first suggestion seems more likely than your second; though given what little I do know of the brain, the second seems more plausible than the first. I don’t have enough data to think one is significantly more likely than the other, and I’m not sure where I might find or create such data.
As for the downvotes, I’d made a private bet to myself before posting, that I was sufficiently oblivious to and unaware of local social norms that I’d make /some/ social error causing my post to be downvoted to oblivion, and that I wouldn’t know why unless someone explicitly told me, which I expected to be unlikely. I’d thought I’d recalled LessWrong’s “oblivion” was five downvotes rather than three, but was wrong about that.
As for the downvotes, I’d made a private bet to myself before posting, that I was sufficiently oblivious to and unaware of local social norms that I’d make /some/ social error causing my post to be downvoted to oblivion
Re sensory: From what I’ve read, the dreaming brain takes advantage of many existing brain-structures—eg, when you see things, parts of the visual cortex light up. So it seems plausible that that would also work for physical sensations.
I suppose one possible resolution is that my particular sensory homunculus is already primed for a tail somehow, though, again, I’m not sure how to find evidence to help support or reject that theory.
Two possibilities come to mind.
First, that the limbs of your “dream self” aren’t mapped to your brain’s sensory homonculus in the same way that your limbs are at all. (I find that likely.)
Second, that the limbs of your “dream self” are mapped to your brain’s sensory homonculus in the same way that your limbs are, but that your brain constructed the narrative of the dream in such a way that the signals coming from the portion of your sensory homonculus ordinarily mapped to, say, your arm are interpreted as coming from a tail instead.
What interests you about three downvotes?
Given what I felt (or ‘felt’, as the case may be), your first suggestion seems more likely than your second; though given what little I do know of the brain, the second seems more plausible than the first. I don’t have enough data to think one is significantly more likely than the other, and I’m not sure where I might find or create such data.
As for the downvotes, I’d made a private bet to myself before posting, that I was sufficiently oblivious to and unaware of local social norms that I’d make /some/ social error causing my post to be downvoted to oblivion, and that I wouldn’t know why unless someone explicitly told me, which I expected to be unlikely. I’d thought I’d recalled LessWrong’s “oblivion” was five downvotes rather than three, but was wrong about that.
Here’s one.
Re: sensory narratives… what knowledge of the brain makes the latter seem more plausible than the former?
Re: downvotes… congratulations on winning your bet!
Re sensory: From what I’ve read, the dreaming brain takes advantage of many existing brain-structures—eg, when you see things, parts of the visual cortex light up. So it seems plausible that that would also work for physical sensations.
I suppose one possible resolution is that my particular sensory homunculus is already primed for a tail somehow, though, again, I’m not sure how to find evidence to help support or reject that theory.