# If a blind person could suddenly see would the visual world make sense or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987 "2003-07-16T21:45:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/21 "2003-07-18T22:08:32Z")
I wonder why there seem to be some many questions about blind people on here? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/22 "2003-07-19T15:36:04Z")
One thing not being considered too much is that if organs aren’t used they can atrophy. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/23 "2003-07-20T22:38:23Z")
In the 1999 film **At First Sight** Val Kilmer played a man who had blind since the age of three and went through a great struggle to adjust after having his sight restored. In particular he had difficulty comprehending distance and perspective. This was said to be based on a true story. C. S. Lewis wrote a gloomy short story on the subject. He said he was inspired by the cryptic passage in the Gospels where Jesus restores sight to a man born blind who, when asked what he sees, responds “men as trees, walking”. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/24 "2003-07-20T23:28:53Z")
There was an excellent recent BBC documentary “The Man Who Learned to See” following a guy called Mike May who’d lost his sight as a child, but was getting it restored as an adult. Coping with trying to make sense of his new (still limited) capabilities was clearly a difficult process and all those involved seemed to accept that the obstacles were such that they had to feel ambiguous about the treatment. As I recall, Oliver Sacks was one of the interviewees. There are some [info and links by and about him](http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/wyp/mikemay.shtml) available. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/25 "2003-08-27T14:17:19Z")
This MSNBC article may be of interest to those who read this thread previously as it is directly on point with respect to the questions raised by the OP. [Man’s vision gives insight on seeing - Procedure that restored vision after blindness gives clues — After 43 years of blindness, Michael May can see again](http://www.msnbc.com/news/956851.asp?0cl=cR) Part of long article. > [@](#): > > HE CAN play soccer with his sons, enjoy movies and, for the first time, gaze on the Sierra Nevada slopes he has expertly skied — sightless — since the late 1970s. > But May can’t recognize his sons, Carson, 11, and Wyndham, 9, by their faces alone. The same goes for identifying Jennifer, his wife of 15 years. > People “can’t fathom that,” said May, who owns a company in Davis, Calif., that makes navigational software for the blind. > Three years after surgery restored sight to May’s right eye, researchers say May’s case shows how vision is more than just eye function. Blindness has long-term effects on how the brain processes information and constructs one’s view of the world. > May lost his sight to a chemical explosion when he was 3½ years old. He eventually lost his left eye and remained blind in his right until the surgery in 2000. > But testing since that surgery has showed that May’s ability to interpret what he sees through his good eye is decidedly mixed, said Ione Fine, lead author of a study appearing in the September issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience. > May can identify simple shapes and colors. He can interpret objects in motion. He can spy faraway peaks. He marvels at the vibrancy of plants and flowers unseen since he lost his vision. > But three-dimensional perception and the ability to recognize complex objects such as the faces of family and friends remain severely impaired. He strains to tell the difference between a man and a woman. He describes a cube as a square with extra lines. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/26 "2003-08-27T14:20:23Z")
Apparently credit is actually due bonzer who, on review, gave this same story through another source in the link just before mine.:o ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987/27 "2003-08-27T20:11:38Z")
Coincidentally, I was reminded of making that same post yesterday by an article about him in the _Independent_ by the novelist Lisa Appignanesi. I didn’t think it was quite worth resurrecting the thread for, but since that’s been done anyway: [here’s the link to it](http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=437181). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-blind-person-could-suddenly-see-would-the-visual-world-make-sense-or-not/188987.md?page=1)