We have 5 senses (formally). Which is more important to you?

[muz1]

Hey.
I know it sounds like a weird question to ask in a computer forum. My reasoning is this. We have seen computers used by people that are blind, deaf, mute etc.... Computers are used right across the board. We use computers for various reasons. Some for purely achademic reasons, others as a means of expression, relaxation (???) or entertainment. Our five senses enable us to experience different facets of each situation we live in and through.

There are 5 senses (formally).

Sight
Sound
Touch
Taste
Smell


For those of us who are fortunate enough to have all of these five senses and also for those who may not have all of them..... if you had to go without a sense that you currently had, what would it be and why?
Why would you choose it over another.

For example, I have all five senses and they are fairly well balanced. Being a visual person, I definently need sight. I love music and could not live without it. Therefore I need sound. Touch is very important to me. To feel texture it itself is almost like sight beyond sight. Smell is something so sensual as it stirs emotions in me.

Taste is something that I could sacrifice. I have never really been mad about food. Even as I say this, I appreciate the taste of a nice stir fry, a handful of dried fruit or a piece of chocolate.

Have you ever really thought about your five senses?
Have you ever considered how your life would be without one of them?
What would you consider your most important sense and your least?

I am a digital designer amongst other things. As graphical communication is a language beyond words, communication in itself becomes a state of mind.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers
muz

[Footissimo]

1. Sight -big gap to->
2. Hearing
2. Touch -huge gap to->
4. Smell
5. Taste

:)

[BWF89]

My senses in order that I need them:

1. Sight
2. Touch
3. Sound
4. Smell
5. Taste

[ComplexNumber]

90% of our sensory data is received through our eyes, so i would vote for sight first. 2nd would have to be hearing so that i can continue to appreciate music.

sight
sound
touch
smell
taste

[fuscia]

sight, by far, is most important to me. being a music teacher, i suppose i should put hearing second, although there are days when i'd like to put it dead last. touch is a close third, followed by smell, then taste.

[GarethMB]

being a music teacher, i suppose i should put hearing second, although there are days when i'd like to put it dead last.
:D

For me its. Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell. Although the last two are very closely linked it's hard to call.

[prizrak]

Depends for what really. If you are talking biologically/survival wise the most important is sight and hearing the rest are just "niceties". Touch kinda falls between survival and nicetie in that it alerts you to possible danger (hot/cold surface, pain and such). For recreation touch, smell and taste are more important tho ;)

[Dragonbite]

That is a tough one.

Sight, because it's used 99% of the day. Plus I'm spending a lot on these Corneal Refractive Therapy (http://www.paragoncrt.com) lenses to fix my eyesight without having to go the Lasik route (no slicing, no dicing and no risk save lost money)

Hearing, because sound is all around and you really notice it if form some reason everythign went quiet. Of course years of listening to music too loud and now I have this permanent ringing in my ears that I've heard means I have permanent hearing loss.

Smell, because it is one of those senses you use but don't realize. Not just for smelling good food, or good perfume, either. When I'm driving with the top down and I see dark clouds ahead it is when I can smell the rain (or is it ozone?) THEN I pull over to put my top up (or just drive through it.. amazing how the rain goes over your head when doing 80mph!)

Taste, because it is so closely related to Smell.

Touch, because nothing feels so good as a nice massage or the embrace of a loved one! :)

ESP, because it's fun to be "in the know" ;)

[fuscia]

:D

For me its. Sight, Sound, Touch, Taste, Smell. Although the last two are very closely linked it's hard to call.

*sniff, sniff* is something burning? vs. "eeeew! this tastes burnt!" puts smell over taste, for me.

[BWF89]

I put touch before smell because. Without the sense of touch, if I went to pick up a glass and was holding it, unless I actually looked at the glass resting in my hand I wouldn't know I was holding it, or how tight to hold it. Tight enough that it wouldn't slip out of my hand but not tight enough that it would break and cut my hand.

[fuscia]

no touch, no sex.

[GarethMB]

*sniff, sniff* is something burning? vs. "eeeew! this tastes burnt!" puts smell over taste, for me.
True. But i see definite benefits to not being able to smell.

"Hey is that smell you?!"


"What smell?" ;)

[muz1]

no touch, no sex.

Good point Fuscia.
Considering sex seems to be so important in this world. Great to hear from a music teacher to. I could not live without music.
Cheers
muz:)

[fuscia]

True. But i see definite benefits to not being able to smell.

"Hey is that smell you?!"


"What smell?" ;)

i was just thinking how weird it would be to have no senses at all.

[hizaguchi]

no touch, no sex.
Yes, but no sight, no way of knowing what you're having sex with. :)

Sight is number 1 for me, and then touch. The rest I don't care so much about. Not being able to hear would actually have its advantages in crowded rooms or near annoying people. No taste would save me tons of money and make me way healthier. Smell is pretty handy though... but I think it's one of those things where you'd forget you didn't have it after a while. I don't notice smells until I encounter an extreme one anyway.

[fuscia]

Yes, but no sight, no way of knowing what you're having sex with. :)


for some people, that might be a good thing.

[slimdog360]

sight
oh but without sound I couldnt hear music. hmmm thats a toughie.

edit: I once knew a guy who couldnt taste anything, he didnt really seem to care.

[ComplexNumber]

i was just thinking how weird it would be to have no senses at all.
go in one of those sensory deprivation tanks and find out for yourself ;). many subjects end up going mad after a while.

[Lord Illidan]

I have some hearing loss. So sound has become a v. important sense to me.
I am also myopic, and without my glasses cannot see a thing.

1st - Sight and Hearing
2nd - Touch
3rd Smell
4th Taste

[djsroknrol]

sight
touch
sound
taste
smell

my .02....

[Dragonbite]

no touch, no sex.Just means you have to get more imaginative if that's all it takes! ;)

[PatrickMay16]

They are all very important to me and I would rather have all of them functioning properly.

But if I had to put ranks on their importance, here is what I'd put (larger the number, the more important)

5: sight
4: sound
3: touch
2: smell
1: taste

Fackin' like a master.

[GuitarHero]

Well sound, sight, and feel would be my top three. At first I would say Id let smell go, but most of what we think taste is is actually smell. So id loose tase. And then I could eat healthy and not care about taste.

[Piggah]

I'd also have to be put sight first by far..

I suppose mine would be:

1. Sight
2. Sound
3. Touch
4. Taste
5. Smell

I could sacrifice both smell and taste, but I find myself smelling more bad things than eating bad things, so I'd rather have the taste over smell.

[weekend warrior]

This isn't a difficult question really.

The most important sense of all is... common sense. ;)

[MaximB]

1.sight
2.touch
3.sound (I'd put it in the second place but sex is better ;))
4.smell (don't find much use to this)
5.taste (don't like food)

[muz1]

Good point. Well said :)

[richbarna]

no touch, no sex.

Tantric?

[fluffington]

Sight - I am a visual person; I think in shapes and colors rather than words, and I love to just look at stuff. I also have a large number of hobbies that would be nearly impossible if I couldn't see what I was doing.
Touch - Aside from the enjoyable bits (sex being everybody's favorite, apparently), there are also the not-so-enjoyable bits like pain that are incredibly useful. If not for my sense of touch, I wouldn't be aware of a number of things, from the temperature outside to the gash in my leg when I got mauled by a dog a few months ago, or the fact that there's currently a sharp rock in my right shoe that will likely put a hole in my foot if I try to walk before removing it.
Smell - I have a very good sense of smell, to the point where I can differentiate between the two varieties of fungi currently growing under my sink, and I rely on it almost as much as my vision for information about the surrounding environment.
Sound - I'd miss music (though I don't really listen to a whole lot of that), but I wouldn't miss that high-pitched whine that comes from nearly every electronic device in existence.
Taste - I would miss a few select foods (yakitori, for example), but overall not a big loss. Especially considering that my alergies completely kill my sense of taste for four months out of the year anyway. Plus I wouldn't have to turn my grandpa down whenever he offers to make liver and onions.


There's also #6, ESP, which would probably go between touch and smell. I feel a lot of things that I can't generally explain in terms of the usual five, but I don't have enough evidence to suggest it's separate, either, so it stays off the list for now.

[RAV TUX]

Hey.
I know it sounds like a weird question to ask in a computer forum. My reasoning is this. We have seen computers used by people that are blind, deaf, mute etc.... Computers are used right across the board. We use computers for various reasons. Some for purely achademic reasons, others as a means of expression, relaxation (???) or entertainment. Our five senses enable us to experience different facets of each situation we live in and through.

There are 5 senses (formally).
Sight
Sound
Touch
Taste
SmellFor those of us who are fortunate enough to have all of these five senses and also for those who may not have all of them..... if you had to go without a sense that you currently had, what would it be and why?
Why would you choose it over another.

For example, I have all five senses and they are fairly well balanced. Being a visual person, I definently need sight. I love music and could not live without it. Therefore I need sound. Touch is very important to me. To feel texture it itself is almost like sight beyond sight. Smell is something so sensual as it stirs emotions in me.

Taste is something that I could sacrifice. I have never really been mad about food. Even as I say this, I appreciate the taste of a nice stir fry, a handful of dried fruit or a piece of chocolate.

Have you ever really thought about your five senses?
Have you ever considered how your life would be without one of them?
What would you consider your most important sense and your least?

I am a digital designer amongst other things. As graphical communication is a language beyond words, communication in itself becomes a state of mind.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers
muz

I mostly rely on my 6th sense.



Extra-sensory perception, or ESP, is an alleged ability to acquire information by means other than the known senses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense), eg. taste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste), sight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight), touch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch), smell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell), hearing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_%28sense%29), balance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrioception) and proprioception (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception). The term implies sources of information unknown to science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-sensory_perception

also explained here:


Intuition (knowledge)

Jump to: navigation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_%28knowledge%29#column-one), search (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_%28knowledge%29#searchInput)
Intuition is an immediate form of knowledge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge) in which the knower is directly acquainted with the object of knowledge. Intuition differs from all forms of mediated knowledge, which generally involve conceptualizating the object of knowledge by means of rational (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationality)/analytical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis) thought (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought) processes (and, hence, placing a mediating idea or concept between the knower and the known).
Some philosophers consider human experience of raw empirical data (sometimes called "qualia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia)") to be intuitive. For example, when a person sees a patch of yellow, that person is directly acquainted with the yellowness of the object, even if he or she has no name or concept for yellowness.
Intuition differs from opinion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion) since intuition is a way of experiencing objects, while opinion is based on that experience. Intuition also differs from instinct (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instinct), which does not necessarily have the experiential element at all. A person who has an intuitive basis for an opinion probably cannot immediately fully explain why he or she holds that view. However, a person may later rationalize an intuition by developing a chain of logic to demonstrate more structurally why the intuition is valid.
In popular understanding, intuition is one source of common sense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sense) and it may also help in induction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_reasoning) to gain empirical knowledge.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_%28knowledge%29

[RAV TUX]

after doing a little more reading several senses have been left off:


Proprioception (from Latin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception) is the sense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense) of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body. Unlike the six exteroception (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exteroception) human senses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense) of sight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight), taste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste), smell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction), touch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch), hearing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_%28sense%29), and balance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_balance), that advise us of the outside world, proprioception is a sense that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception

It appears we formally have seven senses:

1. taste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste),
2. sight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight),
3. touch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch),
4. smell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell),
5. hearing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_%28sense%29),
6. balance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrioception),
7. proprioception (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception)

&

8. intuition/ESP

I would list:

in order of importance:

1. proprioception
2. balance
3. (intuition/ESP)
4. touch
5. taste
6. sight
7. hearing
8. smell

[NightwishFan]

I prefer glasses. The personify me. Would this guy be cool without glasses, I think not.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/375755087_e434b534cf.jpg

[aaaantoine]

i was just thinking how weird it would be to have no senses at all.

You would be completely detached from the outside world. In fact, you probably couldn't even tell if you were dead or alive.

[Linuxratty]

1. Sight
2. Hearing
2. Touch
4. Taste
5. Smell