Sensory Deprivation

So, our task was to cut off a sense for 3 or 4 hours and report back. Cutting off my hearing seemed the most plausible, so I picked up some earplugs (beautiful fluorescent orange Winchester hearing protection, by the way) and began. It was jarring at first - even a tad uncomfortable, but I began work on a few school projects.

About half an hour or so into it, I actually came to like closing off my hearing. It was very freeing to be able to focus more on my drawing. Of course, I kept getting songs stuck in my head and couldn't really listen to them. Thinking about having songs in my head, however, got my mind thinking in another direction - the difference between being BORN deaf, and GOING deaf.

Though I wasn't 100% deaf with the ear plugs, I was more like someone who had gone deaf, rather than someone who was born deaf. I wonder - would I feel better losing my hearing, knowing what I was missing...or would I feel better being deaf all along and not having anything else to compare it to?

Outside of that thought, I don't think that this assignment really hit me. I understood what was likely to happen - that we would be experiencing the world in a different way, changing our perspective, etc. etc...but I just couldn't get into it. Perhaps if I had pushed myself further - COMPLETELY eliminating my hearing, for example, or actually venturing out (which could have been rather dangerous...) - I would have gained more from this. I tried, but I don't think I got a ton out of this assignment.

Annnnd, part 2. Create-a-Sense. Hmmm...let's think here...

How about tactile gustation (okay, technically a combination of two EXISTING senses). How do we usually taste? We taste using taste receptors and a little boost from our good ol' olfactory senses. But think - what if we could taste things just by TOUCHING them? It would work much like regular taste - we'd touch an orange and our brain would say, "Hey! That's got a little tang to it, sport!" The difference would be that we could activate it, just like a light switch. On. Off.

Another benefit to this would be that we could preview something before actually eating it. You see, my version of tactile gustation is very fleeting - since we can turn it on and off, if you don't like the taste then BAM! Turn it off. And though we're well past this, think of how useful that may have been to early people scavenging for food. Poisonous items wouldn't be so deadly if the poison wasn't actually ingested.

Anywho...that wraps up this post. Now go - imagine a world of grubby-pawed people tickling fruits to garner a taste.