The Five Senses

[LustyxChan]

I was having a discussion with a friend earlier today about the five senses. If you had to give up one, which would it be? Now, your other senses don't get heightened or anything either.

So if you had to give up one, which would you choose?

-Smell
-Taste
-Touch
-Hearing
-Sight

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I'm going to go with taste. As much as I love the taste of food, I don't think I really need it to survive and could be something I could live without.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

I think that's probably a good one. It would probably make for a healthier lifestyle

Of course, then you won't know if you just ate something dangerous.

[Master Lindale Mustaparta]

That is a very difficult derision. Loss of hearing, I know well because of my father, and it just made him all the more of a pain in the arse.

The loss of sight would make you virtually dependant on your spouse. But of course, Adrea Bocelli overcame it to become one of the greatest voices in the world today. So there is hope.


As for the others, they all exist for a very important reason, to keep you from harm, to preserve your life.

Taste: Sweet is attributed to sugar, which means calories, which means energy. Bitter is attributed to poison.

Touch: To let you know when what you are walking on is sharp, unstable, hot, freezing, or any other form of unsafe.

Smell: is what makes up half of tase ability, but it also helps to smell when something is dangerous, like a gas leak.




All and all, hearing is the only one I could think of being able to lose, and still have a fairly normal life.

[Fortune]

I have a deviated septum, so I can barely smell half the time; so I probably could survive giving that up, although it would guarantee I would never switch colognes.

[Ryojin]

I would go with smell, for the exact same reasons as Fortune. I don't think I could stand living with deafness or blindness, though. Maybe blindness, but certainly not deafness.

[Adrian Ţepeş]

Speaking of blindness

We'll miss you, SikTh

[Mr. Matt]

Of all the traditional five senses, taste is probably the least useful. Sight and hearing are obviously important in most activities, touch is important for knowing when you are on fire or being stabbed (although thermoception may help you out with the former), and smell is particularly useful in the modern era for smelling burning or a gas leak. Taste has its uses too, but in the modern world of sell-by dates and detailed ingredients on packaging, you can probably avoid eating harmful substances without it. Even if it would suck to be unable to taste Pringles anymore, at least you'd be able to earn street cred by easily undertaking a number of dares that would be difficult with a sense of taste.

Of the expanded senses, however, I'd probably choose to lose my sense of balance. I manage without it when I'm drunk.

[Ryojin]

Originally Posted by Mr. Matt

Of the expanded senses, however, I'd probably choose to lose my sense of balance. I manage without it when I'm drunk.

What else do you have to choose from? I don't know what falls under 'expanded senses'.

I don't think I would like losing my sense of balance. I've always had an unusually excellent sense of balance. So good, I don't really lose it even when drunk as hell. XD

[Mr. Matt]

There are several. Thermoception is classed as distinct from touch. Balance is obviously another that we all (except for you apparently) sacrifice on a regular basis. And the least well known is probably proprioception, which is basically what allows you to touch your finger to your nose with perfect accuracy even without seeing what you're doing. Without that last one, you'd be tripping over your own feet all the time. There are a couple of others too, one to do with acceleration, but I think they're less established. Or at least I don't know what they're called.

They're not actually called expanded senses by the way, that's just how I differentiated them from the traditional five.

[FileTrekker]

Smell is largely redundant except in a gas leak.