The Sixth Sense- Not The Movie.

[longshottwelve 0]

I was pondering something the other day. Stevie Wonder came to town and my girlfriend and I went to see him (he was great by the way). I used to do lighting in college, so I always look up at the light scheme when I go to the concert. I'm looking at these beams of light blasting down on Stevie and I begin to wonder if he has any concept of how bright that light is. I don't know the extent of Stevie's blindness, but if he's completely blind, he has no perception of light the way we know it. I'm sure he can feel the heat, yes, but he doesn't know light like we know it. He would have to base his perception of light on those around him that can see it, and explaining it to him would be near to impossible. If we take away his sense of touch, then he can't feel the heat anymore. Light, for the most part, would be completely non-existent to him.This got me thinking. We have 5 senses that control how the information we receive is perceived. If the human brain is a computer, then the 5 senses are our inputs. Information can only be gathered through these senses, without them we are masses of flesh with no direction. Take away 1 sense and we are at a disadvantage in interpreting things. Take away 2 and some things are completely out of our realm of identifying.If logic and rational can't be utilized without information, and information can't be gathered without our senses, we are complete slaves to those senses. This leads me to a string of questions. Hypothetically, if there were more than 5 senses, is it possible that things may exist right in front of us that we just can't perceive? Would a God classify as one of these things? If Stevie didn't have touch and had no way to identify light, would he be justified to say it didn't exist? And on a more literal note, are there any creatures that we know of that do posses a sense that humans do not?Discuss.

[Balloon guy 158]

In an intro to Philosophy class we were told that the electrical impulses that your brain receives from your eyes and ears are identical, and if you swtiched the 'pipes' you would hear color and see sounds.I always thought that you would go insane, although I would like to listen to some Puccini while in a blacked out room.

[longshottwelve 0]

In an intro to Philosophy class we were told that the electrical impulses that your brain receives from your eyes and ears are identical, and if you swtiched the 'pipes' you would hear color and see sounds.I always thought that you would go insane, although I would like to listen to some Puccini while in a blacked out room.

Wow, that's the first time I've heard that. If that's true it's mind blowing.

[crowTrobot 2]

This got me thinking. We have 5 senses that control how the information we receive is perceived. If the human brain is a computer, then the 5 senses are our inputs. Information can only be gathered through these senses, without them we are masses of flesh with no direction. Take away 1 sense and we are at a disadvantage in interpreting things. Take away 2 and some things are completely out of our realm of identifying.

when talking about the senses intrinsic to our "masses of flesh" you have to keep in mind that we've extended them exponentially through technology. for example human vision can only see a tiny fraction of the spectrum of photon wavelengths we can detect and measure using instruments. in fact our bodily senses aren't strictly even necessary to gain information, since intruments can potentially detect and pass info directly to the brain. we have developed the potential for different kinds of inputs, and don't even really need our limited bodies.

IF logic and rational can't be utilized without information, and information can't be gathered without our senses, we are complete slaves to those senses. This leads me to a string of questions. Hypothetically, if there were more than 5 senses, is it possible that things may exist right in front of us that we just can't perceive? Would a God classify as one of these things? If Stevie didn't have touch and had no way to identify light, would he be justified to say it didn't exist? And on a more literal note, are there any creatures that we know of that do posses a sense that humans do not?

depends on what you mean by god. obviously the christian version as described in the bible should be easily detectable through his interventions - through his supposed directly messing with things we can detect. of course nothing not directly attributable to known physical processes has ever been detected in a controlled setting.if you mean a deistic non-intervening god then we potentially would have no way to detect him with our senses, but you could say that about anything you want to imagine - extra dimensions, a place "outside" time etc. this line of reasoning only leads to god-of-the-gaps arguments. god is conveniently hiding where we can't see.

[longshottwelve 0]

in fact our bodily senses aren't strictly even necessary to gain information, since intruments can potentially detect and pass info directly to the brain. we have developed the potential for different kinds of inputs, and don't even really need our limited bodies.

You mean I can learn Kung Fu?

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Am I the only one who gets this?

[jmkiser 0]

Am I the only one who gets this?

sadly, yes?an old sci-fi film?

[crowTrobot 2]

sadly, yes?an old sci-fi film?

sorry about that lol. it's an MST3K character that was played by one of the voices of my forum name.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_%28MST3K%29i do feel sorry for anyone with a sense of humor that has never seen MST3K

[jmkiser 0]

sorry about that lol. it's an MST3K character that was played by one of the voices of my forum name.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_%28MST3K%29i do feel sorry for anyone with a sense of humor that has never seen MST3K

mystery science theater, amirite?it's that good?yeah, i'm a youngun

[crowTrobot 2]

mystery science theater, amirite?it's that good?

greatest show in the history of television : )

[Balloon guy 158]

greatest show in the history of television after Beat the Geeks : )

fyp

[lordofelt 0]

To get semi-back on topic there are certainly animals that have certain senses superior to ours i.e. Drug smelling dogs, Hawk's eyes or Owls night vision etc. As far as senses we don't have there are some that come down to interpretation. Bats have echo-location where their hearing is so strong they can send out audible signals to tell where objects are, while this is genearlly considered just extremely good sense of hearing could it not be considered a "sense" because of they way they are now able to use their hearing to navigate? I imagine even if a human were able to use technology to gain the ability to make the audible tones and hear the echoing of them off objects they wouldn't be able to interpret that and allow them to run full speed through a wooded forest without a collision, in that sense (see what I did there), using the computer analogy its not only having the input abilities but the CPU abilities to interpret the stimulus and the send the appropriate output (to avoid the tree ahead of you.) Also I find it fasinating how when people lose one sense their other senses are usually heightened but thats not really on topic at all.

[crowTrobot 2]

I imagine even if a human were able to use technology to gain the ability to make the audible tones and hear the echoing of them off objects they wouldn't be able to interpret that and allow them to run full speed through a wooded forest without a collision

sure they would, with enough practice.