IAmTheWalrus212

Imagine if no one had sight, nor had ever heard of it. We would never think that there was anything to see; we wouldn't be able to even fathom that, because we wouldn't know about it. Well, perhaps humans have other senses we do not know about... we could be able to do or know amazing things, or experience so many other things with our hidden senses, if there are any. Thoughts?

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SigourneyReefer

On average we only use about 10% of the human brain. So, it is very reasonable that we are capable of a lot things we do not know. Also, a lot of people throughout the world have developed a sixth sense. So, a lot of things are technically possible.

-S. Reefer-

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PsYcHoLoGiCaL

That is a myth, we do in fact use 100% of our brains. I just though that I would mention that.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9903/ten-percent-myth.html

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SigourneyReefer

Ahh, silly me. Well thank you for correcting me. Much appreciated.

-S. Reefer-

PhreshwaterPhunk

Yeah, I read somewhere that when they performed the test and found that we only use 10% of our brains, that it's only at that MOMENT. Like, you use more of your brain when working on a math problem, or writing a story, but you only use 10% when your laying down getting catscaned, cause it doesn't require much thought.

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SigourneyReefer

Learn something new every day.

-S. Reefer-

jvthc

IAmTheWalrus212:

Your point touches on a number of Aristotle's philosophy, and of his teacher, Plato.

Look into Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" as an example. Instead of stark blindness, he uses shadows.

According to my "Ancient Philosophy 101" - which is now a 20 year old memory - Plato's underlying foundations are based on the idea that there is one, true reality, and that our imperfection of sense and reason causes us to understand only a limited representation of that reality. Plato is considered a mathematician or, consider the time, a bit scientific, partly due to this aproach. There is considerable merit to the idea that what we sense represents reality to us, but our senses are limited and thus fail to expose reality. This is why we need microscopes to see the very small, and telescopes to see the very large pieces of reality. In a very real sense, despite the fact we see what we do, we are actually quite blind to an even larger and more complex truth, for which we now use logic and instruments to gain vision.

Aristotle, on the other hand, is consider "biological" or perhaps "psychological" in his approach. To him, even if there were an underlying, single, true reality, what you sense is your reality to you, and nothing outside that domain is real to you. To some degree, he has a point. Germs were not real to humanity until we extended our vision to see them. Even though we only "saw" an atom very recently, we used logic and deduction to extend our vision to recognize it's presence. Until we did, it wasn't "real" to mankind. Heck, the world was flat as far as we were concerned, until someone demonstrated clearly that it wasn't.

Humans don't have a sense of electromagnetic fields, per se. If you place your brain sufficiently close to a very powerful electromagnetic field, you just might have a sense of it, but this is something like a deaf person feeling vibrations through a floor. It can't be said, precisely, that they hear through their feet. There are animals with a profound sense of electromagnetic fields (hammerhead sharks, for example). Dophins can, in effect, perform a visual sonogram. It's been realized they can "see" an unborn child inside a pregnant woman swimming in the water - and they seem very curious (perhaps even intuitively recognizing the child).

With respect to these kinds of sense, we are blind. We have, through technology, only recently extended our senses so that in many cases our machines can see, hear or smell in ways no creature ever has, and in so doing increased our recognition of reality in new ways.

I would argue, though, that on the average, mankind's development wouldn't be what it is now without sight. I can't propose logical arguments that succeed at positing we would never develop language, math or geometry, but it's clear that sight was an early means of responding to the immediate environment for a huge range of creatures, including man. Blind people certainly have no less range of mental prowess, and I'm still amazed at the notion of teaching a child like Helen Keller - a true demonstration of how flexible and useful the human mind is with limited senses.

A sightless intelligent race may have taken different path, and it may have taken longer (assuming the shear volume and type of information exchanged over generations were limited by sight's absense), but it's clear our known senses aren't enough to satisfy our curiosity, or completely engage our mental capacity. We expect, now, that even our children require some time with a microscope, and should gaze at the sky using images made of radio waves, listen to sounds too faint to hear without a stethoscope, see through solid objects or in ranges of colors humans weren't designed to see.

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Imagination is more important than knowledge - Sounds like BS, until you realize Einstein said that.

TurbulentHigh

Have you ever wondered what blind people see? They don't see anything, no colors, no blacks, no whites. There isen't even light, if you can comprehend that. Imagine not being able to see even darkness. So I guess you could say they see nothingness.

IAmTheWalrus212

High- I've also given that thought. We do not know what nothing sounds like, feels like, tastes like, looks like, or smells like. So what do those people experience? It's crazy.

Almost Bliss

DUDE im telling that to people all the time and they never are able to comprehend what im talking about, and they just say "no they see black, dumbass." Woot im not just a pipe dreaming stoner.