# If it were possible, you accept a new sense? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 27, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478 "2011-05-27T20:09:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/21 "2011-06-01T17:17:55Z")
> [@SunSandSuffering](#): > > 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). Eh. If you break out something like thermoception based on the receptors involved (rather than just counting it as a component of touch), you might as well we have five different senses of taste, and so on. We all have dozens and dozens of senses! Except that’s not how it _feels_ (heh), and not how people think of it. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/22 "2011-06-02T14:30:39Z")
> [@Weedy](#): > > Ha! > > What was that story called again, I’ve forgotten. _The Secret Sense_, by Isaac Asimov. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/23 "2011-06-02T15:16:47Z")
Hesitently yes, depends on the new sense. Imagine a world almost identical to our own, except that the people there see in black and white. One day, one of the people suddenly gains the ability to see colours. Useful? Maybe so, but he’s going to have to learn what the colours mean. I, for example, can tell at sight a ripe banana from an unripe one. Will our hero have that ability? As a young child I had parents to explain to me that this colour is called green, green bananas are unripe, that colour is called yellow, yellow bananas are ripe. Our hero will have to work it out all by himself. It could take years, if ever, and in the meantime the world will look very weird to him. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/24 "2011-06-02T15:27:04Z")
Hesitantly yes, depending. Because I wouldn’t if it meant being able to see, every waking second, what is, what was, what could be, and what must not. Because that’s the curse of being a Time Lord, Donna. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/25 "2011-06-02T15:36:53Z")
I picked “_Hesitently yes, depends on the new sense_.” My first impulse was of the “Hells yeah!” variety, then I thought about it some more. We can’t turn off our senses. Essentially, every waking second of every day we are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching _something_. We can learn to prioritize sensory inputs, but not to block them out completely (even with your eyes closed, you’re still seeing something). So, if all day, every day, for the rest of my life, I’m sensing electrical fields or feeling magnetism or what have you, and _can’t ever turn that off_, I’m not entirely convinced I would consider that a cool new ability and not a constant irritating distraction. I’d have to weigh that against what I’m getting in return. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478/26 "2011-06-02T21:00:14Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > 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. This. And even if it were something completely useless or caused some level of distraction, just having the broadened experience would appeal to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-it-were-possible-you-accept-a-new-sense/583478.md?page=1)