> Suppose you didn't have to eat or sleep or excrete anything, etc. Now
> suppose you were locked in a small closet with no light and nothing in it.
> Now suppose you suspended in this locked closet for one billion years with
> nothing to do but sit there. What would that be like? As a child I used to
> scare myself on purpose by thinking about that.
I suppose it would be torture, right? The brain freaks without some
kind of stimulation. We must not have evolved the ability to deal with
it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation
Sensory deprivation experiments of the 1950s have shown that human
beings need environmental stimulation to function normally. In a
classic early experiment, college students lay on a cot in a small,
empty cubicle nearly 24 hours a day, leaving only to eat and use the
bathroom. They wore translucent goggles that let in light but
prevented them from seeing any shapes or patterns, and they were
fitted with cotton gloves and cardboard cuffs to restrict the sense of
touch. The continuous hum of an air conditioner and U-shaped pillows
placed around their heads blocked out auditory stimulation.
Initially, the subjects slept, but eventually they became bored,
restless, and moody. They became disoriented and had difficulty
concentrating, and their performance on problem-solving tests
progressively...
