Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Being Scottish, I'd give up my inherent sixth sense (which was apparently missing when you came to TeachMeet06 - didn't see you come in :-( My mum enjoyed chatting to you, though.

Our visual sense of sexual stimulus.

Why? It serves only human genes and not the individual in possession of the sense.

We may just about be able to survive on a rational/economic motivation for procreation and the remaining aesthetic sense of human beauty/fitness with the incentive of endorphin reward.

But, this is a reluctant relinquishment, under duress remember.

If you'd permit it to be classified as a sense, I sooner consign a sense of 'spiritual awareness' to the scrapheap.

Wow, when you open it up to these kinds of senses, it get's interesting.

Eliminate common sense? Maybe, but remember what Deming said about it.

Sense of shame? Mine's gone.

Sense of propriety? Eliminate that and what would we talk about at my performance appraisals?

Sense of humor? I'd rather lose my eyesight.

Couselor Troy and her "I sense a conflict." We can all certainly do without that.

I'll stop now.

I'm answering straight: taste. It's obviously the least important one. The world might fall into a funk, but the lights would stay on, the planes in the sky. The aesthetic loss would be as bad as that of sight or hearing. And we'd have fewer obese school kids.

Why?

Of the five traditional senses, I would personally choose smell, because I feel that it would be easier to compensate for than the others.

For all humans, I think we should loose the sense accountable for 80% of what we learn: sight.

Visually blind, we would have to start touching more, getting physically closer, and possibly becoming less violent. Skin color would become less important. Music would probably improve, and Stevie Wonder could become President.

An old friend did a study of the blind, the deaf and the neither to see who is happiest. Answer - no peeking! - the blind, then the neither, then the deaf. He thought it was because of linguistic capacity, ability to express oneself. P.S. I just got the domain http://www.myfoodstory.com more about which at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialagriculture/ for a project that our Minciu Sodas laboratory is doing for Greg Wolff.

My preferences also are smell then taste in that order (but this may be influenced by 5 years as a wastewater plant operator). But, like most decisions in my life, sex is a big factor. Until the medical establishment takes that away to "cure" (actually delay my demise from) my prostate cancer. Then "revenge" will be my major "sense". Or "don't give a ***t". I have no idea.