My thoughts
about senses where quite plain before reading How We Listen, by Aaron
Copland and before listening to Colors the podcast produced by Radiolab.
After I completed listening to Colors I began question my own eyesight
and also came to the conclusion that vision is my least trusting sense.
I am one of the 10% males that are
colorblind and have honestly never trusted my own eyesight. When the podcast Colors
broke down the concept of light it even made me more untrustworthy of my
sight. Colors talks about how
many animals see different things based on different visions. For example there
are dogs who have only two cones, certain females who can see more colors and
also a Mantis Shrimp who posses’ the most high quality vision. This leads me to
believe that there are so many ways to see the world when it comes to vision
and so many people see it differently. That makes me uncertain about my vision because
who’s to say my vision is right or a dogs vision is right. The thing is, is
that nobody is right because we all perceive the world differently.
We may all see things differently, but that doesn't detract from the trustworthiness of vision. Being able to see different colors would be nice and all, but it doesn't affect how a person is able to survive. A bear to a colorblind person looks just the same to a person with 'normal' eyesight. Sight is a trustworthy sense, we don't often say, "that sure does look like a cloud, but I can't trust my eyesight, so it's a dragon." Touch is the least trustworthy sense. Take away a person's eyesight and let them touch something furry, they'll get creeped out and try to pull away. The only reason touch is trusted at all is because people have eyesight to reassure themselves. Without sight, touch would be an untrustworthy sense because it wouldn't tell you much beyond texture, sight can have that and include many other features: color, size, reflectivity, and even emotions in other people. Sight is a trustworthy sense, touch is not.
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