A Coming Paradigm Change in Biology
A manifesto on the future of pain science
We are in the midst of a paradigm change in biology. I believe the emerging scientific theories and psycho technologies are going to radically reorganize how we understand ourselves, consider what health is, and crucially, for my own purposes, allow us to really understand the nature of pain and address it.
In this first episode of our new podcast, Pain Points, I talk about the dominant perspective in biology and medical sciences, how it leads to misunderstanding pain, and how the work of people like Michael Levin and Karl Friston heralds a new paradigm for pain treatment, medicine, and biology writ large.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts:
Spotify:
Or watch on YouTube:
Time stamps
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)
00:06:00 Challenges with Materialism, Reductionism, and Dualism
00:12:00 Pain Without Damage, Damage Without Pain
00:15:00 The Alternative: Biological Computation and Collective Intelligence
00:21:00 Nested Agency Across Scales - You Are Many Selves
00:24:00 Health as Problem-Solving Ability, Not Statistical Norms
00:27:00 Pain as a Control Signal
00:29:00 The Somatic Scientists - Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais, FM Alexander
00:33:00 Why RCTs Don't Work for Complex Therapies
00:36:00 Bridging Science and Practice - The Future of Pain Treatment
Resources mentioned
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/uqc...
Hi Max,
Is this podcast available via direct URL/RSS?
I like to load 'em on my podcatcher, avoiding Spotify, etc. 'cause they suck (not the podcast, the platforms).
Hi Max, your ideas are fascinating and thanks for the link to the article preview. Do you also advocate the use of totem tennis - using that same yellow ball on a string which hangs from the top of a pole or 'totem'? This can be played by one or by many. Our neurologist highly recommended playing this if one had balance issues because the brain has to adjust to randomn ball movements. (Can't work out how to upload an image)( it also seems to be called 'tether tennis' or 'pole tennis' - see https://www.shutterstock.com/search/tether-tennis)
Just one query on the article - on the first page, second last paragraph, just before "(Parviainen, 2015)" a noun seems to be missing: you refer to "our embodied and embedded [something?]"
- top of page 4, there's a typo: Extended: Our cognitive processes often incorporate environmental elements as funcitonal [should be FUNCTIONAL]