Hacking Our Five Senses and Building New Ones

ryanguill writes "Wired has an article about expanding your five (maybe six) senses to allow you to sense other things such as direction. It also talks about hijacking other senses to compensate for missing senses, such as using electrodes in your mouth to compensate for lack of eyesight. Another example is a subject wearing a belt with 13 vibrating pads. The pad pointing north would vibrate giving you a sense of direction no matter your orientation: '"It was slightly strange at first," Wächter says, "though on the bike, it was great." He started to become more aware of the peregrinations he had to make while trying to reach a destination. "I finally understood just how much roads actually wind," he says. He learned to deal with the stares he got in the library, his belt humming like a distant chain saw. Deep into the experiment, Wächter says, "I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place."'"

Comments

Been there, done that

[smooth wombat]

There are those of us who have an innate ability to navigate in any environment with little or no aid. I joke with people, who are completely flumoxed as to where they are and in which direction they should go, that they shouldn't worry. My internal GPS knows where we're at. Spacial orientation has just been one of those things I have.

Whether the grid pattern of Manhattan, the non-grid streets of Lower Manhattan or the uniquely French design of the maze known as Washington, D.C., for whatever reason, I can get to where I'm going almost every time without error.

In fairness, I must say that part of this ability is my being able to look at map and then, without looking at it again, orient myself on where I need to go. This applies even if I have to take a detour. Once I know where I'm at, I can get to any point I need.

Would this ability hold up in the Arctic north where there are no landmarks? Maybe, maybe not. But since I'm not one prone to visit cold climates, the world may never know (my apologies to the Tootsie Pop people).