5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Have you ever wondered about how your life would have been if you were born blind, deaf, or mute? I was watching the movie Black Mask and started thinking about how Jet Li's character couldn't feel any pain in the movie, which also reminded me of the Alexandre Dumas classic The Count of Monte Cristo and how Edmond could see in the dark after being in a dark prison cell for fourteen years:

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Alexandre Dumas

"Do you wish to see anything more, sir?" said the concièrge.

"Yes, especially if you will show me the poor abbé's room."

"Ah--No. 27."

"Yes; No. 27." repeated the count, who seemed to hear the voice of the abbé answering him in those very words through the wall when asked his name.

"Come, sir."

"Wait," said Monte Cristo, "I wish to take one final glance around this room."

"This is fortunate," said the guide; "I have forgotten the other key."

"Go and fetch it."

"I will leave you the torch, sir."

"No, take it away; I can see in the dark."

"Why, you are like No. 34. They said he was so accustomed to darkness that he could see a pin in the darkest corner of his dungeon."

"He spent fourteen years to arrive at that," muttered the count.

The guide carried away the torch. The count had spoken correctly. Scarcely had a few seconds elapsed, ere he saw everything as distinctly as by daylight. Then he looked around him, and really recognized his dungeon.

We experience the splendor of the world through our five senses. For example if I related it to a girl: With your eyes you can see her smooth milky skin and dazzling red hair. With your ears you can hear her soft lilting voice. With your nose you can smell her perfume that has a hint of peach. With your sense of taste you can taste her lips in a passionate kiss. With your sense of touch you can feel her embrace. Ok, now let's pretend for a moment that tomorrow you would be involved in a terrible accident where you would lose all but one of your five senses.

If you had to continue living life with only one of these faculties:

• Sight
• Hearing
• Smell
• Taste (combine Smell and Taste if you want, since they are so closely related)
• Touch (including sensation and pain)

Which would you pick, and why would you pick it over the other ones?

Similarly, how would you rank in importance these five senses if for some reason you would systematically lose each faculty over a period of time in the order of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (five being the least important and one being the most important)? What makes one sense more valuable to you than another? It doesn't have to be based on survival but can be based on what sense you love the most. I would assume that after you lose all five senses it's as though you were dead, or you may as well be.

This question doesn't have to necessarily fit in with the first one though. For example, if I had to continue living life with only one sense, I would probably pick sight, since I want to see what is going on around me and don't like to be surprised. Another reason would be is that I wouldn't want to forget the people I love. After a long period of time, my memory would deteoriate and I would forget what people would look like. If I had my sight I could look at a picture or try to find them again to remember. However I might rank in importance hearing over sight, since I love listening to music and just vegging out and I couldn't bear to be all alone in silence for the rest of my life. I could always hear the voices of those people I love and talk to them at least.

Edit: Changed the question a bit to make it more interesting and some examples:

Spoiler:

Also, keep in mind that being born without a particular sense or even losing one after having experienced it can adversely affect the way you interact with the world, so try to think of the good and the bad that will come from it. I'm sure some people will want to be godlike and be aware of all of their surroundings no matter how many senses they lost, but here are some examples of what could happen if you were born without these senses or lost them:

• If you had no sight, someone could be pointing a gun at you ready to shoot and you wouldn't know it. You wouldn't be able to see the beauty of the world like when the sun sets and lights the horizon on fire, not to mention all of the beautiful men, women, and children in the world.

• If you had no hearing, a fire alarm could go off but you might not be aware there is a fire until it is too late to escape. You would be surrounded by silence all your days and that may drive you insane. You wouldn't be able to hear your loveds nor talk to them effectively, since you cannot hear the sounds to mimic. I wonder if you would be able to scream when frustrated.

• If you had no smell, there could be a natural gas leak in your home and you unknowingly create a spark or flame to ignite yourself to oblivion. You might stink at times and people would avoid you on purpose because of your horrible odor. On the flip side you could go through stinky places with ease, if you ever threw away something by accident and had to root through your trash.

• If you had no taste, you wouldn't be able to experience the lusciousness of your favorite food anymore, or even know what food tastes like. I'm not sure if you could tell when you are hungry or thirsty, but eating and drinking would become bland mechanical routines. On the flip side you could eat very healthy foods and not have to spend so much money on "gourmet" foods.

• If you had no touch, you could be bleeding internally and not know you were dying until it is too late. All the sensations you could ever feel would be gone, not knowing what it feels like to be kissed or held, etc. Without feeling pain you are more susceptible to injuring yourself without knowing it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

In the order of importance, from most to least important:

-Most important would be hearing. I love music. Take away the pleasure of music from me and I might as well be dead. Without hearing will also mean you'll have difficulties in speech.

-Sight would be next, as this is my (most people's) main sense, like how they say "A picture is worth a thousand words".

-Then would be touch; without touch, it's like you exist in a shell/artificial body. You can never feel the warmth of another human, or feel anything physically. Almost like a walking corpse. very unlikely to happen though; to lose all sence of touch.

-Next can be either taste or smell. Both co-exist with each other; without smell, you can't taste much of whatever you put in your mouth, and without taste, it'll be a torture to smell good food just to learn you can never taste it.

Thought if I had to choose, it'll probably be smell over taste. Smell is a good way to preserve memory as well, if you didn't realize.

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Most Important- Sight. It's the only sense where I can survey my surroundings and know where I am. To me, my sight is essential. Also, I've spent way too much money on a collectible card game, and the makers don't print them out in Braille.

Second- Hearing. Living in complete silence is rather... boring.

Third- Taste. Without taste, food would only be mandatory rather than tasty. Mmm... ice cream.

Fourth- Smell. Mostly because taste and smell go hand-in-hand. I want my food to taste as good as possible.

Fifth- Touch. There really isn't anything that I've felt that was really worth keeping my touch sense. Plus, I'd be able to withstand cold and hot weather!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Identity Crisis

Fifth- Touch. There really isn't anything that I've felt that was really worth keeping my touch sense. Plus, I'd be able to withstand cold and hot weather!

Not really. You won't feel it, but you're still vulnerable. If you stand in a fire for instance, you won't feel pain, but you'll still die. Same if you were to stay in the Artics naked.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Point taken, Scarletdeath.

However, touch stays as the last sense, though. There's no room in the Top 4.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Acro-nym

5) Touch
4) Taste
3) Smell
2) Hearing
1) Sight

Obviously, if I had the choice, I'd lose touch. (That was not meant to be funny, but I'm glad I said it.)

you know youd feel numb all over your body

id prolly agree with scarlet death. if you were death it would be crazy. being muted all the time

taste and smell mean pretty uch nothing to me, i would lose those and not be devestated. the others i would.


dont get me wrong....id be pissed and i dont want it to happen

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I realize this. I can think of many cases in which losing the sense of touch is better than losing one of the others.

FELIPE NO

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Scarletdeath

Not really. You won't feel it, but you're still vulnerable. If you stand in a fire for instance, you won't feel pain, but you'll still die. Same if you were to stay in the Artics naked.

Yes, keep in mind that being born without a particular sense or even losing one after having experienced it can adversely affect the way you interact with the world, so try to think of the good and the bad that will come from it. I'm sure some people will want to be godlike and be aware of all of their surroundings no matter how many senses they lost, but here are some examples of what could happen if you were born without these senses or lost them:

• No sight - Someone could be pointing a gun at you ready to shoot and you wouldn't know it.
• No hearing - A fire alarm goes off but you are unaware until the flames are upon you.
• No smell - Natural gas leaks? Hope a spark or flame doesn't ignite the room you're in.
• No taste - You could eat or drink something toxic? Who knows, be creative.
• No touch - You could be bleeding internally and not know anything was wrong until it was too late.

Edit: Modified the train of thought and questions in the topic to better suit discussion. Scarletdeath and IdentityCrisis answered the initial topic questions, so don't let that throw you off. My bad.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

^ Many toxic objects won't have a taste; or even if they do, we won't be able to identify it. Look at how many people get food poisoning without knowing the cause. If you think about it, taste is still less vital to human survival.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You people are forgetting that the sense of touch is vital to sex.

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^ But of course. Why did you think I placed Touch as third after Hearing and Sight. ^^

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Acro-nym

I realize this. I can think of many cases in which losing the sense of touch is better than losing one of the others.

This is the second time you've posted in this thread without any form of actual discussion or elaboration. Your post tells us nothing, you are in effect saying "I agree" which makes your posts spam. Please either add some content to your posts or stop posting all together.

You can consider this a friendly, gentle warning.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Scarletdeath

^ But of course. Why did you think I placed Touch as third after Hearing and Sight. ^^

yeah but who would have sex with someone whos blind and deaf...if they were like that since childhood they would be a vegetable!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shin

This is the second time you've posted in this thread without any form of actual discussion or elaboration. Your post tells us nothing, you are in effect saying "I agree" which makes your posts spam. Please either add some content to your posts or stop posting all together.

You can consider this a friendly, gentle warning.

I'm not sure the first post truly fits what you just said (you delete it instead of the one without much content at all?), but I will add content to it.

I watch TV and read comics. I use the computer and read books. For these reasons, sight is most important to me.

With TV comes sound. I also enjoy music and being able to listen to people, especially when they are discussing a particularly interesting subject. So, hearing comes next.

I put smell next. If I didn't have the ability to smell, I might eat something rancid or drink something spoiled. With it, I can tell if some things are dirty. And there are so many wonderful smells in the world I wouldn't want to lose.

Really, I regard both touch and taste as about equals. I believe touch holds back the consciousness. Due to our fears of feeling pain or discomfort, we choose not do certain things. Taste sort of follows those lines, limiting what food we are willing to eat. I put taste above touch because I love how food tastes. Depending on the day, taste is one of the best senses.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Bredow

yeah but who would have sex with someone whos blind and deaf...if they were like that since childhood they would be a vegetable!

Assuming you're a guy; if Scarlett Johansson was born blind and deaf, would you hit her?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Bredow

yeah but who would have sex with someone whos blind and deaf...if they were like that since childhood they would be a vegetable!

Someone's never heard of Helen Keller.

To answer the question: I'd forsake everything to keep my hearing. Music is INCREDIBLY important to me, and I wouldn't scrap it for anything in the world.

Next most important would be smell/taste. There are many, many foods and beverages which make my life - in my eyes - complete, and I don't think I'd manage without this sense.

Touch would be my next concern. Without it, I'd obviously not even be able to move of my own accord. Being incapacitated to that kind of level would be torture.

Sight isn't important to me as the above, but I'd be pretty miserable if I lost it. Internet lol?

...And, nobody's mentioned prioperception, so I'll give it a little place between taste and touch. If I didn't know my place in perceptive space then I'd have the coordination of a... Malcoordinated person.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?