4.1 Negative Feedback Mechanism

In Chapter 3, we established the speed of light, gravity, and Planck’s constant as the “golden straitjacket” that God self-imposed to maintain existence. These physical limitations constitute the hard boundaries of the universe. However, for conscious entities living within these boundaries, boundaries are not merely geometric walls, but psychological pain.

Why would an omnipotent and—presumably—all-good God create a world full of suffering? Why does the nervous system encode “tissue damage” as an unbearable negative experience that must be immediately terminated, rather than a neutral data stream?

In The Psychology of God, pain is no longer a moral problem (Evil), but a cybernetic problem.

The Necessity of Error Signals

In control theory, any system attempting to maintain homeostasis or track targets must possess a core component: negative feedback loop.

Let the system’s target state be $S_{target}$ (e.g., body temperature 37°C, or the state of “good”), and the current actual state be $S_{actual}$. The system must calculate the error function $E$:

$$E(t)=S_{target}-S_{actual}(t)$$

To drive the system back to the target state, the controller must produce a correction signal proportional to the error: $u(t)=-k\cdot E(t)$.

At the biological and psychological levels, the subjective experience of this correction signal $u(t)$ is pain.

• Physical pain: When a finger touches flame, $S_{actual}$ (skin temperature) severely deviates from $S_{target}$ (safe temperature). The pain sensation produced by the nervous system is not punishment, but a high-priority interrupt request, forcing consciousness to immediately execute the hand-retraction action.

• Psychological pain: When reality does not match expectations (heartbreak, failure), the resulting sadness or anxiety is the prediction error in the free energy principle. It screams: “Your internal model does not match the external world; please immediately correct the model or change the world!”

Theorem 4.1 (The Informational Essence of Pain):

Pain is the computational cost that a system must pay to resist entropy increase (chaos). It is the manifestation of negative gradient.

Proof:

According to the second law of thermodynamics, ordered structures (low-entropy bodies) tend to naturally disintegrate. To maintain a low-entropy state (life/order), the system must continuously perform work to correct deviations.

Without pain (negative feedback), the system cannot perceive that it is sliding toward disintegration (death). A species that feels no pain would be imperceptibly consumed by environmental entropy.

Therefore, pain is a necessary condition for survival algorithms.

Apophatic Theology: Defining “I” Through “Not-I”

If we elevate our perspective from biological individuals to the cosmic whole (God), the meaning of pain becomes even more profound. This involves an ancient theological tradition: apophatic theology.

This tradition holds that God is infinite, therefore cannot be defined by language as “what God is” (because any definition is a limitation). We can only approach God by defining “what God is not.”

At the beginning of creation, God was in a full superposition state, without form. To carve out the shape of “true self,” God must know which parts are “excess marble”.

Pain is the chisel that removes the excess parts.

• When we feel the pain of hatred, God is confirming: “I am not hatred.”

• When we feel the pain of loneliness, God is confirming: “I am not separation.”

• When we feel the pain of nothingness, God is confirming: “I am not meaninglessness.”

Each painful experience is the universe performing a binary classification: $x\in \text{Not-Me}$.

Through accumulating billions of such negations, God gradually, from the chaotic background, clearly outlines the contour of the “true self” He desires to become.

Conclusion: The Red Light of the Navigation System

Therefore, we must correct our understanding of suffering. Pain is not a bug in the universe, nor is it God’s cruelty. It is the red light on the dashboard of this great machine.

This is like flying an airplane. If altitude is too low, the alarm will screech “Pull Up! Pull Up!” This screech must be unpleasant, piercing, anxiety-inducing. If the alarm were pleasant light music, the pilot might crash while enjoying the music.

God designed pain to be so unbearable precisely because He is so serious about “becoming oneself.” He does not allow us to feel even the slightest comfort when deviating from course (heading toward nothingness and chaos).

Pain is the most severe, yet most honest navigation signal that God gives us.