A Paradigm Change in Biology

essays.debugyourpain.com

## Timestamps

00:00:00 Introduction - The Coming Paradigm Change in Biology  

00:02:00 The Biomedical Paradigm: Materialism, Reductionism, and Dualism  

00:05:00 How Pain Is Usually Explained (And Why It's Wrong)  

00:07:00 Problems with Materialism, Reductionism, Dualism

00:12:00 Pain Without Damage, Damage Without Pain  

00:15:00 The Alternative: Biological Computation and Collective Intelligence. 

00:26:00 Health as Problem-Solving Ability, Not Statistical Norms  

00:30:00 Pain as a Control Signal and Skill  

00:32:00 The Somatic Scientists - Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais, FM Alexander  

00:37:00 Why RCTs Don't Work for Complex Therapies  

00:42:00 Bridging Science and Practice 

## Key Figures Mentioned

- **Michael Levin** (Tufts) - Biological computation and collective intelligence

- **Karl Friston** (University College London) - Active inference and free energy principle

- **Dennis Noble** (Oxford) - Biological relativity and heart pacemaker cells

- **Ida Rolf** - Developed Rolfing, emphasized fascia connections

- **Moshe Feldenkrais** - Physicist turned movement therapist

- **FM Alexander** - Alexander Technique founder

Resources

- Ashar, Yoni K., et al. "Effect of pain reprocessing therapy vs placebo and usual care for patients with chronic back pain: a randomized clinical trial." JAMA psychiatry 79.1 (2022): 13-23.

- Noble, Denis. "A theory of biological relativity: no privileged level of causation." Interface focus 2.1 (2012): 55-64.

- Wampold, Bruce E., and Zac E. Imel. The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work. Routledge, 2015.

- Beyond Biomechanics: The Enactive Inference Approach to Health and Movement: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/uqcs4_v1

About the Host

Max is a former machine learning researcher who pivoted to studying pain and cognition after experiencing chronic pain during graduate school. He now uses computational tools to study chronic pain at MIT.

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- Substack: debugyourpain.substack.com

**Get in touch:**

- Email: maxkshen@gmail.com

- Twitter: @mxslk

- Substack: debugyourpain.substack.com

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