I often compare my internal processes to those of a machine - God, it's taking me some time to boot up this morning; the wheels in my head are turning; I wish I could switch off.
I take input from the world, process it, and output simple existence-statements which I am later able to elaborate on: I'm hungry, I'm sad, I'm content, I don't feel anything at all.
This causes me to wonder what would happen if my machine were not self-regulating or self-correcting; if there were code being executed outside the boundaries of my architecture.
The composite existence-statement output by such a situation might be: it looks for all the world as though I am unhappy, but I feel weightless, full of joy and energetic. Only the dial of my face, which takes its cue from outside itself, dares to suggest otherwise.
It means that we can never accurately answer the question: "How do you feel?" when all signifiers do not co-incide. It means that we can never be sure of the validity of the answer to the question: "How do you feel?" when we ask it of someone else, either.
