Nobody ever asks “if I’m deaf, then what does it sound like?” because EVERYONE already knows what it’s like to not hear anything. Same for taste, for going numb, we all experience lapses in those senses
It’s sight that seems to be the exception. No one who hasn’t personally experienced blindness can actually imagine what blindness is like. Even as I roll my eyes to the left and say “me not being able to see what’s on my right is what being blind is like” still doesn’t satisfy me because, well, I just plain can’t see that. And that’s the point. My brain just can’t comprehend my entire vision being like that. Eyesight is so incredibly mind boggling to think about losing, that it actually tests the limits of my imagination.
And this is why eyesight is truly the most important sense. We always see something, even if it’s just darkness, there’s never a time that our eyes aren’t working hard to show us what’s in front of us
Be glad you haven’t been diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition that means you’ll go blind somewhere between next week and the next 50 years.
It’s anxiety inducing.
I wear a sleep mask at night. If you’re curious what it’s like to have no vision at all, try it. I couldn’t even make it to the bathroom next door with it on.
Nope, because wearing a sleep mask just means that your eyes are covered
You still see something, even if it’s just black
I’m talking about not seeing anything
I think i get you. But then doesnt that extend to other senses? We don’t expereince the real vacuum of deafness, but rather the sound of silence.
Hello darkness, my old friend
Well no, but I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine either. It’s just completely total silence that lasts forever
As long as you know what silence is like, then you can imagine what being deaf is like
The same can’t be said for blindness, because we never have periods where we just see completely nothing all across our vision. We always see something even if it’s darkness, and whatever blind spots in our vision we DO have, our brain just automatically imagines isn’t there because of what we still do see
You still hear your body and vibration through your body.
Yeah but I can imagine just not hearing that. They’re pretty negligible noises
The same can’t be said for blindness, because we never have periods where we just see completely nothing all across our vision.
I mean, that’s demonstrably untrue, just close your eyes in a dark room (hell if it’s dark enough you don’t even need to close your eyes). Eyes work by detecting light, we don’t see darkness just the same as we don’t hear silence. The brain implies darkness by the absence of light, just as it implies silence by the absence of sound waves.
If anything, I’ll argue that total blindness is probably the easiest sense to simulate losing. The body has lots of ways of making its own sound: small movements, breathing, swallowing, digestion, even your heartbeat, so there is an argument there that experiencing total silence is rare. You can always taste, smell, and feel yourself (even if your brain filters most of it out), there’s not much you can do there. On the other hand, the human body doesn’t give off visible light and blocking visible light from external sources is easy and cheap, so you can relatively easily isolate your eyes from the outside world and render them inert. Then you’re just left with what your brain comes up with, but that’s true for all sensations or lack thereof.
You’re just failing to comprehend blindness
Eyes that are working will SEE darkness in the absence of light, but you simply can’t see darkness if you have no eyes to see out of
First of all I want to preface all of this by mentioning that it really depends how vision isn’t working, because there are different levels and causes for blindness, not all of them even a problem with the eyes.
But let’s say it’s total blindness because the eyes are “not working”, you got a face full of laser and the nerves behind your pupils are fried. They’ll detect zero brightness, not because there is no brightness, but because they’re broken and can’t send a signal. They failed in the “off” position, so to speak. If you “SEE darkness”, that was invented by your brain, and it’s mostly an artifact of still remembering having vision pretty recently. Spend enough time without vision and your brain will restructure itself to make better use of those resources.
Again though, how are your eardrums different? Your eyes detect fluctuations in the EM field, your eardrums detect fluctuations in a sound medium, both detections get passed as electrical signals to the brain for further processing.
I don’t think it’s remotely common to experience lapses in the ability to taste. In the decades I’ve been alive, I’ve only experienced it once, due to a very bad sinus infection. I’m not sure most people ever experience it.
People with Covid report losing their sense of taste. Happened to me when I had it. I took the opportunity to include more healthy things in my diet that I don’t normally like the taste of. It wasn’t 100% loss of taste, but it’s bizarre to eat a square of chocolate and have no indication that that’s what I’m eating.
You do when you taste things that are flavorless, like your own tongue
Well, it is possible to make yourself temporarily blind if you’ve got low enough blood pressure and stand up quickly! Get a heater and a blanket, or just a heated blanket, and stay horizontal for a while. Once you’re all warm and maybe a little tired, basically just a degree or two from throwing off the blanket, throw it off and stand up as fast as possible. Avoiding food for while will also make the effect stronger! I’ve found that total blindness tends to also come with hearing loss (until the blood comes back in haha) so you get both at once!
If you’re not lucky enough to have low enough blood pressure, get a friend to hug you as tight as possible as soon as you stand. If you do have low blood pressure, this combination is a quick ticket to passing out, so don’t do it regularly. But if you’ve got normal to higher blood pressure, I would expect this to be enough temporary blood loss to the head that you’ll lose a sense or two. I’m afraid I only have experience with low normal and low blood pressure so your mileage may vary on effectiveness. Ensure you’ve got a soft surface to land on in case it goes wrong.
It is really hard to describe loss of vision for sure. The lack of vision is a little panic inducing when you open your eyes wide and nothing happens. It feels dark, like its black, but its not actually black. Maybe just the kind of color that you see as vague patterns when you squeeze your eyes shut tight in the dark, but even then its not quite right.
But I disagree with sight being the most important sense. Importance simply depends on your environment. Is it important in our society? Absolutely! But that’s because we have chosen to focus on it collectively. I think its all relative, though I believe a lack of touch and/or pain is perhaps the most damaging across the board. Without pain, it’s hard to detect damage and difficult to feel encouraged to avoid it. Lack of sight, sound, smell, or taste is a challenge, but rarely deadly alone. But when touch/pain is gone? Life expectancy tends to shrink simply because you no longer have a warning system to tell you when something has gone wrong!
It’s like if “from before I was born” was a color
