Assuming you had to lose one of the traditional 5 senses would you give up sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing? why?
For me I think taste would be first as I doubt I’d miss it since I don’t appear to have much of it anyway. For me things fall into two general categories, foods that I find totally disgusting and won’t touch and foods that range from fairly bland to mildly pleasing but it’s a narrow range. Most tastes I would have a hard time categorizing and either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, they just are what they are.
Smell would be probably be second, probably because it’s related to taste and also wouldn’t be much of a loss. As with tastes, smells to me typically are just whatever they are and are neither strongly positive or negative. Exceptions exist but they have to be overpoweringly strong.
Hearing would come next because while this would be a big loss the gain of not having to hear traffic or neighbors or blaring stereos would at least balance it out a bit.
Touch and sight would be a distant fourth and fifth, in that order. Either would be a huge loss.
I’ve lost hearing at one point due to an infection, and similarly sense of smell with certain medications.
Losing hearing made me very distressed. Losing smell was kind of pleasant - food was blander, but I was suddenly able to be around animals, people known for wearing cloud of body talc, public restrooms, etc. When my smell came back, I realized I hadn’t missed a thing.
I’m not sure how one could get by without a sense of touch. It would make it very hard to pick things up or manipulate anything. And think of all the, you know, pleasurable sensations that you would miss out on.
No, it’s obviously between taste and smell, and since AIUI what we think of as taste is rather dependent on our ability to smell, I would sacrifice my taste buds.