NationStates Jolt Archive

Which of your senses do you value the most? So, if you could only have one sense, which would that be?

Definitely sight.

Sight also.

Sight.

However, I really think that touch is vastly underrated.

Sight - no matter what other sence you have, at least you won't be bumping into things. Unless, of course, I could be DareDevil. Then it would be hearing.

I would really hate living without music

Touch is far and away the most important. It's the only one that, when lost, completely ruins your relationship with your envoironment. There are blind fish, deaf insects, and plenty of things without noses or tongues. Touch is universal.

Now that I think about it, having intuition alone would be pretty worthless. I mean, without your other senses, you couldn't interact with onther people at all--no sign language, no writing, no lip-reading. You wouldn't even know if you were holding a pencil! Unless you have "Spider sense" style intuition...not that I know anyone who does.

Senses--which matters the most?
That's easy. Common.

Hearing...because of music...but then sight is pretty close.

Touch, difficult to move around without this sense. Otherwise you'd be bumbling around worse than a drunkard if you tried to move.

But if all you had was touch, you'd still stumble, because you couldn't hear or see anything. Quite a problem, no?

I'd keep my ability to see dead people.

Everyone has a "baseline sense," which is the sense they use the most. With many men, it's the sense of sight. With many women, it's the sense of touch. I would suggest that it would be each infividual's "baseline sense" which would be the one that matters most to them.

But if all you had was touch, you'd still stumble, because you couldn't hear or see anything. Quite a problem, no?
Not as much as you'd think. Blind people, and even doubly handicapped (blind and deaf) people can move around quite well. It's all a matter of touch & memory. Of course, if people go & move furniture around...but even sighted people get in trouble in those cases.

Bah without touch, which can really be subdivided into several senses, you wouldn't even be able to tell where your various parts of your body are, unless you could see them. One of those subdivisions is proprioception which is the ability to sense where your body parts are with relation to other body parts. It's what allows you to walk without stumbling over your own legs. It's what allows you to touch your own nose when the cop asks you to tilt your head back and touch your nose. This alone would make touch worthwhile. Eventually you can get to know your environment enough so that stumbling wouldn't be as much of a problem. The only other people who would actually be able to get up and move are those who can see. But they would have to look down at their legs to make sure they don't stumble. But most importantly touch is good for sex.
*Nods*

Touch ... if Helen Keller can do it, so can I.

There is one sense people forget about, mostly because it is so basic...balance.

I'm hungry right now. So i clicked 'taste'

Not to mention sense of humor ... gotta have that.

There is one sense people forget about, mostly because it is so basic...balance.
Actually that would be included with touch. It's part of proprioception that I was talking about earlier.

I think my eighth sense is most important, it tells me with a thirty six hour accuracy the proximity in time of a trip to Chuy's (greatest restaurant in the universe, if you don't live in Texas you should drive here and eat at one)

Looks like no one would be happy with only the sense of smell. However, your sense of taste would be pretty weak without your sense of smell. If you don't believe me, seal your nostrils and eat garlic, or something equally strong.

[sense of balance] It's part of proprioception that I was talking about earlier.
I don't quite see that...care to elucidate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
Hmm, Wikipedia says it's seperate from touch in that article.

Meh, that's not the way I learned it in school. There were the four centralized senses and touch was the only decentralizes sense so everything else was grouped there.

Here is a fun one to try with touch. Now, you can only feel two things: pressue (how hard something is pushing against your skin) and temperature (how warm or cool something is relative to your skin). You CANNOT feel wetness. Get a bucket of cold water and put your hand in it. You say it feels wet, right? Now dry off your hand, put on a really tight plastic glove, and submerge it. Your hand will still feel wet! Cool, is it not?

If I lost everything but hearing, I'd be pretty much incapable of moving around without injuring myself. I could perhaps use some kind of primitive sonar in a particularly 'echoey' room (yeah, I just made that word up. I'd like to see you do anything about it!), and hear when cars are coming (assuming I can find a road), but that's about it. I could listen to directions, though, so all is not lost. Worse, without a sense of touch I wouldn't notice. So I'd probably end up dead within a few minutes, as I'm not the least clumsy person on the planet even with all my senses.

If I lost everything but touch, that'd be a little easier. You could feel your way around, but it'd be slow going. Without hearing you wouldn't know whether you were accidentally feeling somebody instead of a wall, so you could end up with lots of legal action being filed against you. Plus, feeling alone won't help you cross a road, so again, I'd probably end up dead.

I doubt anyone considers their sense of smell to be the most important. It's alright for dogs, but not for us. Besides which, I lose my sense of smell for a month every summer, so I know I don't miss it all that much when it's gone.

If you lost everything but taste, you'd have some serious problems. You must use your sense of taste for about 10% of your day, and without a sense of touch or sight, you're not going to be having an easy time of putting food in your mouth. Short of licking the floor to find your way around, I doubt you could go anywhere either.

Vision I would say is the most important to me. I'd be able to navigate pretty much as easily as I do now, although without hearing I'd have to be a little more cautious of things to the sides and the rear. I could still use the computer for work and NS etc, I could still watch TV with subtitles, I could still engage in most of my hobbies, which require sight. I could still read books. Most importantly to me, I could still drive. I like me eyes, thank ye.

Intuition? Don't think I have it. I've certainly never used it. Don't think I would even consider it a sense. Now, telepathy on the... oh wait. I wasn't supposed to say that. *Uses telepathy to erase everyone's memories*. Erm, no intuition for me. Yeah.

I also agree that touch is by far and away the most important sense. Without it I do not think you would live for very long. In fact shorter than if you lost any of the other senses.

Without feeling you do not feel pain so to cut or burn yourself would not matter because you would feel no pain which means you would not nurse your wound. I am sure infection would set in rather quickly with someone without the sense of touch and be thier end.

Human beings are probably more dependent on sight than any other sense, so that. You'd be pretty messed up wihtout touch or balance though.

We should consider how we think we'd cope without all the senses, one at a time.

Sight: If I was blind, I suppose I could get along, but I still wouldn't want to be, and admire those that are that manage to live a normal life.
Smell: Meh, I suppose I could live without this, although I wouldn't be able to taste anything either, so it's really 2 for the price of 1.
Touch: Surprisingly important. Could I live without it? I suppose so.
Hearing: Well, seeing as I'm deaf anyway, I think I can safely say I can live without it.
Taste: See smell. It'd be like eating styrofoam...but who said that was a bad thing?
Intuition: Without this, I'd be blissfully unaware of when something bad was about to happen. It reduces fear. Sometimes I wish I didn't have this.

So, my conclusion is that sight is the most important - which was apparent anyway. I mean, I wouldn't be able to read this thread without it, would I?