Anyone else wonder what blindness from birth would be like?

[iamjagman]

Honestly, I've been wondering about this to no end since I played through Lilly's route (so tear-wrenching ) and I'm sure a few others have too. If you only think about it a little bit, it seems like you would feel left out, then you realize that, having never experienced sight, you wouldn't feel a loss, but, then again, people always explain things with sight, so you would feel left out not being able to visualize it, and it just goes on and on. For some reason, I myself have recently become slightly obsessed with learning to operate without vision, as, from the right point of view (if you aren't thinking about it as losing a sense, but as amplifying others which are more adequate than vision anyways), being blind is better than being able to see in many ways! Vision's main purpose, in my opinion is for pleasure/distraction. The only practical uses for it are being able to notice things far off and being able to notice things not making any noise that are out of your reach.

So, what are your thoughts on this?

[UncleJellyfish]

I was wondering this as well. If those of us with sight were to close our eyes, we "see" darkness, or a deep shade of black or dark blue. If someone is blind from birth, having never experienced sight in their life, will they still "see" this darkness, or will their mind even comprehend it as such?

[Tomate]

How can we know? We cant even relate to that, if one has ever seen something he cannot unsee it, so one cant actually wonder how blindness from birth would be like. Its like asking 'How does a fish feel out of water".

And i disagree, fiercely about this:

being blind is better than being able to see in many ways! Vision's main purpose, in my opinion is for pleasure/distraction.

[UncleJellyfish]

You're right, there's no way of knowing, but it still doesn't stop me from wondering. Also, your avatar makes me want to start playing Skyrim again. D: Once you've punched all the dragons to death, with your fists, there really isn't much left to do.

[Deadeye]

From what I've learned from blind people, it's like being in an absolute pitch dark room. No light sources anywhere, you can look but you can't see. Our eyes might adjust to try and fix that but theirs don't. Never-ending black is all they ever see, though trying to explain the concept of color is like us trying to make a child explain the string theory. That is for the born with blindness people. The one's who suffered an incident later on explains this as such, so I don't see why it'd be different for those who are born blind.

[UncleJellyfish]

From what I've learned from blind people, it's like being in an absolute pitch dark room. No light sources anywhere, you can look but you can't see. Our eyes might adjust to try and fix that but theirs don't. Never-ending black is all they ever see, though trying to explain the concept of color is like us trying to make a child explain the string theory. That is for the born with blindness people. The one's who suffered an incident later on explains this as such, so I don't see why it'd be different for those who are born blind.

But those that become blind later in life have experienced with color, and their brain is trained to identify it. Those born blind will not have that mental process, so it may actually be quite different for them. Perhaps they "see" things like Daredevil. o_O

[Deadeye]

I've seen a special where a blind man used clicks he made to turn his blindness into sonar. So it's entirely plausible that it's different. He actually went around teaching other blind people how to do it. He can walk without a cane, and other then the weird clicks he makes it'd be hard to peg him as blind

Edit: First link seems to have been banned

[UncleJellyfish]

I've seen a special where a blind man used clicks he made to turn his blindness into sonar. So it's entirely plausible that it's different. He actually went around teaching other blind people how to do it. He can walk without a cane, and other then the weird clicks he makes it'd be hard to peg him as blind

I've seen that special as well. They even have a small device that makes the clicks for you, and it fits onto your belt or pants just like any old step counter. Hopefully one of these days one of those sonar-using blind people will turn into a super hero. Then bang Electra.

[Pomegranate]

My sister has a hearing disability so I've looked into different options that she'll have later when it gets worse, and something I found interesting is the different opinions on cochlear implants, which makes me wonder if it would be the same for blind people. Cochlear implants are basically supposed to be hearing for deaf people, which in theory is great. But I've read that for people that had full hearing and then lost it, many of them would rather be deaf than have the "hearing" with cochlear since they're not like our hearing. However, people who were deaf since birth with no preconceived notions of 'sound' love them.

Since they're going towards helping the blind see now (idk if they're there or not), I wonder if that version of sight would be acceptable to someone who's already been able to see in the past. Just a thought.

[newnar]

Blind people trying to imagine colors would be like normal people trying to imagine what ultrviolet or x-rays look like if we could see them.

[HurricaneHarvey]

As someone who has had delusions and experienced a hallucination (only once thank goodness) I wounder about perception a lot. Hearing and sight are not very reliable, especially sight, for how much we depend on them. One of the more interesting concepts to try and imagine I got from a article about artificially engineered eye implants that would be vastly superior to normal vision. Than in itself would be extremely odd. How would things look if you could see details and shades that no one can see on everything around you. More insane to think about still is the rest of the article which suggested the addition of being able to see a wider spectrum of visible light would introduce and new primary color. Thank about that, a new basic color. That would change even the simplistic things around you so drastically you may have no idea what they are. Black, red, or green, any of them are only that way based on how much we can see of the reflected and absorbed light so seeing MORE of the wavelength? It would mean nothing you ever see will look like what others see.

As for trying to "fix" someone when they cant hear, see, smell, or anything else could go both ways. The way I see it, someone born without a sense would not have much need for it although it would make their lives much easier. Someone who lost it to degenerative disease or accident though I cant fathom why they would not want to regain something they lost. Baring of course the side-effects and/or risk are not greater then the loss.

[Harlequin13]

As someone who has had delusions and experienced a hallucination (only once thank goodness) I wounder about perception a lot. Hearing and sight are not very reliable, especially sight, for how much we depend on them. One of the more interesting concepts to try and imagine I got from a article about artificially engineered eye implants that would be vastly superior to normal vision. Than in itself would be extremely odd. How would things look if you could see details and shades that no one can see on everything around you. More insane to think about still is the rest of the article which suggested the addition of being able to see a wider spectrum of visible light would introduce and new primary color. Thank about that, a new basic color. That would change even the simplistic things around you so drastically you may have no idea what they are. Black, red, or green, any of them are only that way based on how much we can see of the reflected and absorbed light so seeing MORE of the wavelength? It would mean nothing you ever see will look like what others see.

That's interesting. I never thought of it like that... It's probably an obvious thing to many, but not me.

[Mirage_GSM]

The only practical uses for it are being able to notice things far off and being able to notice things not making any noise that are out of your reach.

I think those are quite useful practical uses...

How would things look if you could see details and shades that no one can see on everything around you. More insane to think about still is the rest of the article which suggested the addition of being able to see a wider spectrum of visible light would introduce and new primary color. Thank about that, a new basic color. That would change even the simplistic things around you so drastically you may have no idea what they are. Black, red, or green, any of them are only that way based on how much we can see of the reflected and absorbed light so seeing MORE of the wavelength? It would mean nothing you ever see will look like what others see.

There may be people who can do that naturally. They're called Tetrachromats. It's hard to scientifically verify, though.

[HurricaneHarvey]

There may be people who can do that naturally. They're called Tetrachromats. It's hard to scientifically verify, though.

I can only imagine it would be hard as hell. Like trying to verify what a color looks like to another person. I say this thing is red, so do you, so does everyone. But that is just the name for the color we see form that refracted light. My read could REALLY be your green but we both agree that that things color is called red so what would either ever know of how the others brain processes it.

[charmisokay]

I think blind people associate color with feelings or situations, as green=nature, calm. And so on.

Thats what I would do anyways.