All day I've been imagining an alternate universe, where half of the people in the world are never hurt. They can trip and fall, or touch a hot stove, and they never feel it.
The other half feel twice as much. They are linked to one of the others, and whenever they trip and fall, this person feels it. They stub their toe, and this guy feels the pain.
It's an interesting thought. How many people would just assume they were invincible, and blindly walk through life not knowing or caring? I think some people would be extremely careful, so as not to hurt their partner, but others who like pain would do the opposite.
What if your partner was a starving child in Africa? They felt invincible, but you felt their pain. Who wants to bet that poverty and disease would be gone in five years?
It's leveling the playing field, to an extent. If a rich guy feels the pain of a starving child, or the snow on a homeless person's skin, don't you think he'd help, even if it was for selfish reasons?
I don't think the world would do well if this was how it worked. There would always be people that hurt themselves on purpose just to hurt others, or the people who commit suicide, and two people die. But wouldn't it be an interesting experiment?