Woman Missing Some Brain, Is Totally Fearless As a Result

[Direwolf750]

Interesting, sciency and potentially fatal. I like it.

 

[Rigs83]

This sounds like it would be good for soldiers. Like modern day spartans (only wearing more then a cloak and a loincloth).

The real Spartans wore heavy armor. They only were naked for sports and festivals. And sex, gay sex. Isn't history grand.

 

[La Barata]

So she could go through Amnesia The Dark Descent without shitting herself? Wow nice!

I doubt that's possible

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It appears it also affected the logic centre of her brain.

 

[manaman]

Having no fear doesn't sound too pleasant. I'd rather be a coward than fearless.

You can't be brave without knowing fear. Bravery is after all overcoming your fear.

Just something to chew on.

 

[Lieju]

A family friend damaged a part of his brain, and lost most of his social inhibitions. Makes him great at parties.

Fear is something we need for survival, even if a lot of it is foolish. For example, venomless snakes or most tarantulas are not dangerous, but that fear protects us from those that are.

This woman must be able to reason if something is dangerous or not, or she would have walked into traffic long time ago, but I assume she has to logically think about it every time, instead of instinctively feeling it.

I have a friend who got himself out of a possibly very serious beating by laughing maniacally at his attackers. He must've been afraid, I mean, there were a bunch of goons ready to pound some "normal" into his "satanist" ass (he's a metal fan, shit like this still happens in my country apparently), and somehow he controlled his fear and started laughing as loudly and psychotically as he could. They ran away. I think a fearless person could've been even more chilling.

That sounds like hysteria, which can be a response to fear.

 

[JediMB]

Wasn't it Hal Jordan being mention as a man without fear or was that Batman?

It's Dare Devil, actually. *adjusts nerd badge*

Daredevil. One word. *adjusts bigger nerd badge*

Then why are there two capital D's on his costume? *adjusts grammar nazi badge*

Actually, I did spell it as one, but then I remembered the two D's, so I figured it was two words...

That's a good point, and something I've never really thought about. Maybe he just thought he was being clever, putting more emphasis on the "devil" part of the name. Or he accidentally put two D's on the costume, what with him being blind.

 

[paragon1]

By Muad'Dib do I love this community for the continuous Dune references. *wipes away tears of pride*

However, eschewing Mentat levels of logic, some basic perception of consequence should help her avoid dangerous situations. I think some are tying fear and self-preservation too closely to one another. Fear is the most basic, animal level drive that helps us avoid danger. But even after suffering the lost of that primal driver, one should be able to use simple cause and effect to avoid even the low-conscious threshold dangers fear helps us to avoid.

Case in point, SM's mugging/near-assault encounter. General lack of fear may have lessened the gravity of the situation, but she's a higher functioning being. Where was the presence of logic in her actions? "This is an individual I do not know, beckoning me when I am alone, in a place where I am not likely to be seen. Should this individual mean me harm, I've no means of self-defense. Heeding this individual's call is unwise."

Perhaps the loss of her amygdala has lead to more than mere fearlessness, but an actual inability to comprehend dangers to her person, something with much more severe ramifications. Several of the tests they led her through: the haunted house, the scary movies, etc. Seem prone to individual interpretation, unless they were all based around acute, sudden shock. I'd be more interested in measuring her willingness to pass her hand through an open flame to reach a desired object. Something most wouldn't consider fearful, but would consider stupid.

Well, presumably she can still feel other emotions just fine. Perhaps her rationale thinking became overridden by concern or another emotion that fear would normally have overridden in turn?

 

[PeePantz]

Having no fear doesn't sound too pleasant. I'd rather be a coward than fearless.

You can't be brave without knowing fear. Bravery is after all overcoming your fear.

Just something to chew on.

She doesn't need to be brave though. If she is determined to achieve a goal, bravery is totally unnecessary for her.

She has fear. She simply doesn't respond normally to it.

Very wrong. I read about this. She doesn't have fear. She is missing the part of the brain that processes fear when presented with fear invoking stimuli.

 

[Hauntghost20]

Right, I'm gonna be the one to say it....

Learn karate and become a superhero.

hell yes this should be her catchpharse "FUBOOYA"

 

[Hauntghost20]

Shes a super hero!
Like Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman, or... err..... almost anyone with "Man" in theyer nickname.

Hitman?

 

[kouriichi]

Shes a super hero!
Like Batman, or Spiderman, or Superman, or... err..... almost anyone with "Man" in theyer nickname.

Hitman?

Yes. Shes like Hitman. Only differance is that her underwear dont have 3 miles of piano wire built into them.

 

[Normalgamer]

I think I've heard of a similar case with someone who didn't have any self preservation instincts. Must really suck. Would make a good movie, though... >.> <.<

I know of a man with a strain of autism who's phyical perception is off. He cannot tell the different between a congratulating tap on the shoulder and a slug to the shoulder. Now this man is about 6'3" and 200 pounds, so when I tapped him on the arm and said "Good job" first time I met him, he bashed in my intestines pretty good with one swing

He just sounds like an asshole or incredibly vindictive/autistic. Surely after having the disorder for however long he's been alive, he'd be able to explain not to touch him instead of slugging you.

OT: That's terrible! I hope it's not genetically passable.

 

[Woodsey]

So she could go through Amnesia The Dark Descent without shitting herself? Wow nice!

I can't even watch the trailer for that thing without doing a little poo.

So anyway...

 

[LadyRhian]

And here I was, thinking she was like the protagonist of the book series "Fearless", as they said, "Born without the fear gene".

That's something that sounds really sub-optimal for having a good life.

 

[tkioz]

I wonder if they could duplicate this in a controllable fashion? The ability to turn on and off emotions at will would be worth having something shoved into my brain.

 

[tkioz]

Having no fear doesn't sound too pleasant. I'd rather be a coward than fearless.

You can't be brave without knowing fear. Bravery is after all overcoming your fear.

Just something to chew on.

She doesn't need to be brave though. If she is determined to achieve a goal, bravery is totally unnecessary for her.

The virtue of courage that our, and most societies praise requires the presence of fear, without that fear courage and bravery means nothing.

I wonder if she could be trained to emulate fear through logical deduction? Fear tells us not to do something because it might get us killed, reasoning can do the same thing, just needs a little more effort.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I think I've heard of a similar case with someone who didn't have any self preservation instincts. Must really suck. Would make a good movie, though... >.> <.<

I know of a man with a strain of autism who's phyical perception is off. He cannot tell the different between a congratulating tap on the shoulder and a slug to the shoulder. Now this man is about 6'3" and 200 pounds, so when I tapped him on the arm and said "Good job" first time I met him, he bashed in my intestines pretty good with one swing

He just sounds like an asshole or incredibly vindictive/autistic. Surely after having the disorder for however long he's been alive, he'd be able to explain not to touch him instead of slugging you.

OT: That's terrible! I hope it's not genetically passable.

You have any idea how hard it is to explain "Right" and "Wrong" to anyone with autuism? It's a mental handicap, It's not exactly black and white in terms of easy or hard to explain anything to anyone with a mental disorder.

Don't forget his brain can't interpret any difference between you slugging him and you patting him ever so lightly on the arm, so even if people did teach him "Explain to people not to touch you" if you thought someone punched you, would you explain calmly not to touch you, or would you slug them?