# Trade one sense to superpower another **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432 "2019-08-29T20:09:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/1 "2019-08-29T20:09:31Z")
Would you give up completely one of your five “Aristotelian” senses (vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell) so that you could “superpower” one of the remaining four? “Superpower” = cartoonishly powerful abilities. See light years into space, or individual atoms; hear the full range of frequencies and be able to listen to a concert being played in a far-off galaxy; smell and identify things from really far away; I’m not certain how superpowered taste or touch might work, but it’s still an option. I don’t know, be creative with it. What would you give up, and what would you “superpower”? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/2 "2019-08-29T20:32:48Z")
I would give up my sense of smell if I had telescopic/microscopic vision like Superman. Actually, can I give up my wife’s sense of smell? It doesn’t always work to blame it on the dog. Ideally, I want to be like Ultra-Boy, and be able to swap around at will - deaf when I want to track someone like a bloodhound, listen to other galaxies except with my eyes closed, etc. Regards, Shodan PS - Daredevil has a superhuman sense of touch. What must sex be like for him? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/3 "2019-08-29T20:48:20Z")
Nope. I don’t need supersenses. And I think the loss of any sense would be stark and distressing. Though if I _had_ to lose a sense, the one I would ditch would be smell. Though, wouldn’t that also bork my sense of taste? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2019, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/4 "2019-08-29T21:36:07Z")
Nah, I’m good. Thanks. If you’re forcing me, I’ll go with smell. I have an overly sensitive gag reflex, and oftentimes my sense of smell causes me problems. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/5 "2019-08-30T03:14:02Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I would give up my sense of smell if I had telescopic/microscopic vision like Superman. This. But it would have to include x-ray vision. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/6 "2019-08-30T03:43:55Z")
I think sight is the best sense to enhance, followed by hearing. I’d first give up smell, followed by taste. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/7 "2019-08-30T05:24:54Z")
I already basically don’t have a sense of smell, so can I still give it up? I mean, I can smell some things, like burning sulfur (but only very close, like arm’s reach), but I feel like that would be cheating to use as a trade-in. I’ve also been led to believe my sense of taste is much diminished too. On a tangentially related note, I remember in some circa 2010 movie there was a mock trailer for a tv show about a nose-deaf detective. It was a scene with the detective overcoming his “disability” and busting a criminal by cunningly using his other senses (sight, in this case), with a line like “while it’s true that I have no sense of smell, you made one mistake: you let me _see_ the evidence.” I feel like it might have been _Forgetting Sarah Marshall_, or maybe _Get Him to the Greek_, but I can’t find anything online, possibly because I don’t have an exact quote. ---
**Author:** ![pmwgreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/8 "2019-08-30T06:33:49Z")
Having lost the sense of smell, my taste is hanging on by a fingernail. I’d lump smell in with taste as one sense. We also have a sense of balance, and what I’d call a sense of self, the feeling that your limbs are your own and being able to picture their position even if you can’t see them. Also a sense of empathy, where you can tell other peoples emotions before they verbally communicate them, e.g. call you an idiot. Sherlock Holmes could be said to have no sense of empathy. Or House. A detective with no sense of self would be interesting, at least I am unaware of an example. That might be a mental condition though, similar to being unable to recognize pictures of loved ones. Giving up sense of balance seems at first like an easy one, but I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life with the room spinning around me, and unable to walk. I suppose I could with no sense of touch, but it would be lonely. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/9 "2019-08-30T10:11:15Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > On a tangentially related note, I remember in some circa 2010 movie there was a mock trailer for a tv show about a nose-deaf detective. It was a scene with the detective overcoming his “disability” and busting a criminal by cunningly using his other senses (sight, in this case), with a line like “while it’s true that I have no sense of smell, you made one mistake: you let me _see_ the evidence.” > > I feel like it might have been _Forgetting Sarah Marshall_, or maybe _Get Him to the Greek_, but I can’t find anything online, possibly because I don’t have an exact quote. 30 ROCK, in “I Heart Connecticut”. (The investigative reporter is of Asian ancestry, presumably so WHO NOSE? will sound like HU KNOWS.) “You underestimated me, Congressman, because I can’t smell. But you made one mistake: you let me _see_ the documents.” ---
**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:** [August 30, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/10 "2019-08-30T12:19:46Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > … nose-deaf … [Anosmic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosmia). (One of many things[I learned](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368110) on the SDMB) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/11 "2019-08-30T14:04:21Z")
I could live without taste or smell; I think I would enhance vision or maybe hearing. My fear with hearing is can I control it? If its just picking things up at a higher volume over a larger range I’m not sure how much use it would be. If I was able to tune it in a sense to a distance or direction maybe I would want that. Touch I am really meh about. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trade-one-sense-to-superpower-another/839432/12 "2019-08-30T19:57:31Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > 30 ROCK, in “I Heart Connecticut”. (The investigative reporter is of Asian ancestry, presumably so WHO NOSE? will sound like HU KNOWS.) > > “You underestimated me, Congressman, because I can’t smell. But you made one mistake: you let me _see_ the documents.” THANK YOU! It’s been bugging me ever since this thread started.