I would like to know if there are other senses that we could have but don’t. I am not talking about the extension of an existing sense such as the ability to see ultraviolet light or to hear outside of the normal human range. Is there some property of the earth and universe that exists and could be potentially used to feed important information about our environment to our brain but we just don’t have?
Sure. Birds are able to sense magnetic fields. Sharks and other fish can sense electric fields (though this may be a sense mainly accessible to aquatic organisms.)
Bats have sonar. Pit vipers detect infrared radiation.
Birds can also sense changes in air pressure to a much greater degree than we can (our “sense of air pressure” is so slight as to be nearly useless). Fish sense pressure waves in water in a much more subtle way than we are capable of with the pressure receptors in out skin.
Those are all great answers. What about a sense that no animal has but could?
Well, we could have developed telepathy. This could be accomplished, in theory, with a very finely-tuned RF sensing organ and an RF transmitting organ keyed to our thoughts. I can’t see any huge, fundamental barriers to an animal using the electromagnetic spectrum in that way.
But, in some sense, there are no new senses that aren’t extensions of the old. My version of telepathy could be seen as a simple extension of sight into different wavelengths, for example, as could the heat-sensing organs of pit vipers. Detecting changes in air pressure is a functional extension of either the skin or the ears. Sonar is simply an extension of hearing. There is nothing new under the sun.
[random futuramas quote]
“I have eight other senses! But I’d trade them all, even smision, for the sense of taste.”
[/random futurama quote]
I probably shouldn’t be speculating on this as a responsible physicist, but it’s not out of the question that an animal could have conceivably developed the ability to sense gravitational radiation. (Note the surfeit of qualifiers in the above sentence.) Unfortunately, this would have approximately zero evolutionary advantage and a horrendously huge evolutionary disadvantage: a biological gravitational wave detector would almost certain require an inordinately large amount of support structures (cf. the most advanced man-made attempt to detect gravitational waves, LIGO, which still hasn’t yet been able to detect gravitational waves.)
RF isnt light, therefore it would not be an extension of sight.
I think a cool sense to have could work kind of like a Spider Sense. It could be a logic function that constantly monitors variables like air pressure, sound variance, and other environmental factors on a subconscious level, and you feel some specific sense of wrongness if there are discrepancies that could mean imminent danger.
RF radiation is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. My point stands.
A lot of people have this, but it’s usually not that spectacular. It’s like just knowing when the food will be done, even though you aren’t timing anything, or knowing when someone specific has walked into a room, even though you aren’t looking in that direction and they haven’t actually spoken yet. Being able to anticipate rain is another example of this general trait. It’s simply the ability of the brain to piece things together at a subconscious level.
MikeS, that’s a good one.
Actually, the IR senses of pit vipers is a specialization of heat sensors normally found in the skin rather than an extension of sight.
But your RF telepathy would require a completely different organ than eyes. Calling it an extension of sight is wrong. Unless maybe you think a camera and a radio receiver are the same kind of instrument.
Also the electric and magnetic field senses mentioned above are significantly different than other senses.
But if you want a really useful new sense, how about a GPS sense…
How about being able to sense the emmision (flux / fluence rate) of charged particles - a beta-radiation sense would be useful.
An extradimensional awareness or sensor of some type. Whatever otherworldly and unimaginable organ that might take shape as. How would you sense in an extra dimension? It is hard to even understand as it is unknown and beyond the scope of our current perception, i.e.- “Infnite vision” at higher dimensionalities, maybe?
Hmmm, Geiger counter, that really is a totally new one.
Something is new under the sun.
Well technically, all organic things do have a radiation warning device, not really perceptual and often late in warning. They are called tumors.
Meh. A tumor is a radiation warning device much in the same way that a severed arm is a chainsaw warning device.
You mean like “Hmmm, photometer, that really is a totally new one.” or “Hmmm, microphone, that really is a totally new one.” or “Hmmm, load transducer, that really is a totally new one.” or Hmmm, accelerometer, that really is a totally new one." or Hmmm, conducting polymer sensor array, that really is a totally new one."or …
Rudy Rucker’s relatively new book Spaceland explores this. A four-dimensional entity (for whom our universe is a nanometer-thick membrane stretching across the middle of a cave) gives the protagonist a covering of four-dimensional skin and muscle, plus a four-dimensional eyestalk. He uses it all in some pretty interesting ways.
It’s quite a fascinating and enjoyable book – easily my favorite of Rucker’s books so far.
I wasn’t calling it an extension of sight in any but the absolute vaguest, most general terms. I know the organs would not resemble eyes at all. I was simply saying that it would qualify as an extension of the ability to detect electromagnetic radiation, an ability most closely linked with the eyes and vision.
My point, which has become lost, is that every sense we can come up with will simply be an extension of something we already have.
Our vision is passive - what we don’t have is active vision, ie like active radar, a sensor that emits a beam and then picks up the return. Useful for seeing in the dark, in fog, smoke etc - problem is it makes you very visible to anyone else with radar.
Processing is also important. The ‘spider sense’ goes some of the way but there are other things we lack, like an ability to judge size, distance and speed precisely, and ability to see what has changed in a scene. We can pick out a red bead in a hep of green beads very easily, but try finding an oval bead in a heap of rounds ones.
And why has the human race never developed common sense?