Basically some birds can see the north pole, and some fish can perceive electrical fields. There’s others. Some snakes can sense inferred, many animals see in ultraviolet. Birds are said to have four primary colors, etc.
The rest of the electromagnetic spectrum opens up some possibilities too.
Basically if a surgery, device, or pill (guaranteed by a source you 100% trust) could give you a new sense, or expand a current sense to new worlds of functionality (example dog level of smelling ability) with no side affects worse than the benefits from the new sense, would you take it?
The new sense may or may not be analogous to your current senses, but you won’t lose functionality (so if you got radio vision, you’d still be able to perceive viable light as you do now)
I don’t see a downside to having another sensory input. You get more information about the world around you.
I’d like to be able to sense where other people are nearby, roughly how far away they are and what direction they might be moving in. So that I could know, for example, that there are two people 20 meters over this way and one person 100 meters over thataway.
If the new sense would keep me up at night, I think I would pass. On the other hand, if I could block or dull it by closing my eyes or wearing earplugs or something similar, then sign me up!
I’m assuming that I get to keep the sense indefinitely, and that it doesn’t burn out after five minutes leaving me forever with a memory of a great Martian symphony that I can never again experience.
No. I’ve known people who’ve had a sixth sense. These people who were not frauds and you had to know them very well for them to tell you. I’ve noticed they were prone to depression and other such things. I don’t think you can “have it all”. You suggested nothing would be lost, I don’t think that’s a guarantee. Besides, if you any type of ability that others didn’t have you could be exploited.
Now, if you’ve had the sense since childhood or everyone had these powers, I think it fare better.
Lastly, I think unless we’ve been through a generation or two of such enhancements most people have some problems managing the sensory/information overload that would probably happen.
I’d take a grab bag of new and enhanced senses if they were offered. The ability to sense electrical and magnetic fields, wider spectrum vision, the ability to see light polarization, better sense of smell, built in radar & sonar, the ability to sense radiation, extra internal senses so to better know what parts of me are damaged, ill or stressed, built in micro and telescopic vision, etc.
If it was a device or a medication, maybe, if only so I could try it out without being stuck with it permanently before finding out it would drive me insane.
I’ll admit, even with that, I’d still be wary about even trying telepathy, though.
I’d totally go for just about anything. If the practice of embedding magnets in fingertips becomes popular, I’d join in. (Maybe magnets superglued to a golf-glove would work?)
I’ve got at least eight senses, I’m sure you all do too:
Sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, ability to sense temperature, ability to sense changes in air pressure, ability to detect changes in pitch (balance).
Oh yeah? Well I can sense where my limbs are WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING! I’m so good at it, that I can touch my fingers behind my head on the first try. ON THE FIRST TRY!
I’ve got one two three four five
Senses working overtime
Trying to tell the difference
Between lemon and lime,
Pain and pleasure
And the churchbells softly chime.
I’d love to be able to definitively sense attraction and/or arousal in the opposite gender. (I have been able to taste arousal in a few partners’ saliva, but would love something more failsafe and easier to acquire the information.)
BBC Horizon did an episode called “Seeing is Believing” and had some studies where they gave people the ability to sense magnetic north, it was pretty cool. (short answer, they wore a special belt with buzzers in all around it and it would buzz in the direction of magnetic north every so often.
