Thu 10 Jan 2008
It’s an ages-old hypothetical, but one I have answered differently at various stages in life. Forced to choose, would you opt for blindness or deafness. And of course, why? Let’s open this up to all senses as well.
Posted by Terminal Verbosity19 answers so far!
For me deafness would be preferable by about a million percent. So much of what I enjoy is visual (reading, art, tv/film, family) that blindness would leave my life quite empty. About the only thing I would miss is the sound of my family’s voices, but I would miss their faces so much more.
Sometimes I think that I would WILLINGLY give up the sense of taste/smell, as it would probably improve my diet greatly.
I would have to choose blindness. Life without music for me would suck-diddley-uck! I’m a big fan of the visual arts too but music would definitely be the bigger loss!
In the total list of “sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing”, I think I would give up taste least reluctantly.
A very pithy, simplistic explanation of my choice:
Sight: I’m a visual learner, a reader, and an artist.
Smell/Touch: convey a lot of comfort when associated with certain things, and this is essential to me since I tend to stress myself out a lot and need calming down
Hearing: Music. Basically.
Taste: one of the basic function of taste is to protect humans from harmful substances, but I believe that in the modern age, as a middle-class citizen in a developed world, it wouldn’t be very hard to avoid things that would harm me were I to eat them, and if someone were truly out to get me I wouldn’t have detected the poison anyway. Taste is basically… a bonus, as far as gourmet food goes, and something I think I could live without much better than any of the other four.
Being blind would be a huge pain in the ass, but I think that being deaf deaf would hit me harder as a creative person. Music (Beethoven notwithstanding) pretty much goes right out the window — making or listening.
It’s a good big question, but for me personally it’s damned hard to even try to answer realistically. The sense of loss that would come with either of the big two going would be pretty devastating.
Smell/Taste I’d sell down the river in a second, if it came to that.
I would give up my sense of taste. So what if I dress in mismatched colors, and start enjoying Celine Dion? pretty obvious choice, really.
Between blindness and deafness, I’d definitely choose deafness. While I love listening to music, I’m no musician. The practical consequences of blindness seem worse to me.
Now when all the senses are up for grabs…I really hesitate to eliminate taste. First, I’m assuming that taste/smell are a package deal. And I suppose I can’t ditch touch without really fucking up my ability to enjoy my sense of taste, so that’s out. I’d definitely keep sight, as I already decided I prefer it to hearing. So I suppose that leaves me with a choice between hearing and taste. Now if I could isolate “ability to enjoy music” from hearing in general, I’d probably choose to keep taste and sacrifice music. But if I have to give up all the practical benefits of hearing along with music, then I’ll grudgingly give up taste. I hesitate because I think my hearing ability will suffer the most as I grow older, so I’ll be pissed when I end up with no taste and a terrible sense of hearing (though I guess technology may help with that).
But, damn, I guess I really love food.
On taste vs. smell:
I’m not qualified to say to what degree catastrophic loss of smell (let’s say, nuking every olfactory nerve in my nose) would ruin my sense of taste. I’m presuming it would significantly mute and probably also alter my ability to taste, but not eliminate it entirely.
So I’d have to re-learn food a bit. I’d start using more salt, more seasonings, overload a bit on flavorings in general to get back toward the level of intensity I had been accustomed too. Some foods that I had loved I would no longer love; other foods that I had avoided I might take a new liking too, out of some mix of desparation (I need to TASTE something!) and adventurousness (hey, THIS might be interesting!).
But if I kept my sense of smell but lost my ability to taste food: oh, torture! Every bite a disappointment. Every whiff a lie, a taunt, a little demon of unresolved anticipation. Yikes!
Even though music is my life, I’d have to choose deafness. There is no way on earth I could do my job (teaching English) or related work without vision — or at least it would take a long, long, long-ass time to learn all the compensation methods and technology to do so. Since I would retain the power to speak and already know some ASL, my day-to-day functionality wouldn’t take much of a hit. Also, my pet care capabilities would remain intact whereas losing my sight would be a nightmare and probably mean having to rehome my dogs if not the cats.
It’d kill me not to hear music, but I figure if I could feel the beat-vibration of the speakers as they played things I was already familiar with, I’d be able to remember the sound fairly well. I’d probably enjoy my own piano playing more if I couldn’t hear it though I’m sure the neighbors would disagree.
Oops, RTFQcompletely, Fellini. In order, I’d prefer to lose: 1)smell, 2)taste, 3)hearing, 4)vision, 5)touch — how long would you survive if you lost all ability to detect pressure, temperature, hard/soft, etc.
Also, my pet care capabilities would remain intact whereas losing my sight would be a nightmare and probably mean having to rehome my dogs if not the cats.
Interestingly, my reaction is pretty much the opposite here: I have no pets, currently (though a dog or a cat down the road might be nice, in the not-a-no-pets-fourth-floor-apartment future), and I could (selfishly) rely on my wife to help me compensate for some of the problems blindness would entail. I would, in a sense, be the still-cared-for pet in the equation!
Another argument for blindness over deafness, from my perspective—or really this is a mitigation of a counter-argument—is that I could still use computers and the internet just find if I were to go blind. I’ve known a few blind folks who get along very, very ably using braille readers, screen-reading software, etc. Since I make the more interesting (if not better paying) portion of my income by typing words, this is an important consideration.
Obviously, deafness would have much less impact on any of that, but not fundamentally less, I don’t think.
What this thread really needs is a blind person and a deaf person arguing over who is better. Can you arrange that, Josh?
“Big Big Argument, featuring Stevie Wonder and Marlee Matlin”
I’d choose deafness. It would be cool not to have to hear myself yammering all the damn time. All the good music has been made already and I’ve got it memorized. Kisses are better than voices, and I live for visual stuff like cinema and nature.
I could (selfishly) rely on my wife to help me compensate for some of the problems blindness would entail. I would, in a sense, be the still-cared-for pet in the equation!
Being the only human in the household — and being pathologically independent — definitely enters into it for me. I mean, not being able to drive or bike or grocery shop alone or walk my (definitely not leader-assistance) dogs without a guide? Having to depend on others for all that everyday DIY stuff? Oh, it’d be a bitter pill as well as a major expense.
Also, I’d much rather watch closed-captioned movies than listen to invisible ones.
Oh, I’d give up taste for sure. It would suck not being able to experience the glory of a tender, juicy ribeye steak, but that would also mean I could knock down a plate of brussel sprouts without any anguish. It would be super easy to eat really healthy if it all tastes the same. Besides, you still have smell (though maybe that would just make things worse)
As much as it pains me to lose music, I would have to choose to keep my sight. Having the ability to drive, read, and play video-games pretty much trumps anything else for me.
And I understand that deaf people can get some enjoyment by sensing the bass, so it might not be much, but at least it’s something.
enjoyment of music that is.
Interestingly enough, being the wife of Josh, I would choose to lose hearing and keep my sight. I don’t feel comfortable relying on others to take care of me.
This might be because I have bad vision, and without the modern world (contacts or glasses) would probably be pretty handicapped. For example, driving, or reading street signs while walking around would be right out. I guess I have an idea of what it would be like to lose the sight that I have.
I imagine there is a big difference between being born blind and becoming blind. If I’m choosing the senses that I get to be born with, rather than which ones I get to lose, I suppose it would be fine to be born blind.
Just don’t take away my tastebuds!
Saffron and I could do HILARIOUS re-enactments of the Pryor/Wilder vehicle See No Evil, Hear No Evil.