Which Sense would you prefer to lose

[Ragone]

Simple question, My girlfriend needs this data for a paper she is doing, she needs random poll data from diverse group, so i figure nothing more diverse then here ;)

Thoughts on your vote would be appreciated, but not expected..


Edit:Also just noticed this was my 1,000th post yay :)

[Marmel]

touch - hell no
hearing - hell no
sight - hell no

so is comes down to taste and smell. I want to at least taste my food if i cannot smell it. So I voted smell.

[Bee]

I can't smell and it's not that big of a deal.

[sachmo71]

Taste. Might help me stop eating sweets.

[HornedFrog Purple]

Touch would be the most detrimental.

I voted smell.

[Hammer755]

Can you have a sense of taste without a sense of smell or vice versa? I thought the two were related very closely.

[Bee]

Can you have a sense of taste without a sense of smell or vice versa? I thought the two were related very closely.

I can still taste things, but it's scaled down a lot. Something has to be pretty spicy or strong tasting for me to really notice it. Like with soda, I can't taste the difference between Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, etc. They all taste the same to me.

[JAG]

Choice was pretty easy after thinking about it. Losing hearing, touch, or sight would be too much of a loss of quality of life. So it's either smell or taste. I figure losing smell wouldn't impact my life much, but losing taste would to more of a degree (I don't REALLY need to smell to get through a day, but I do need to eat). So, bye bye smell.

[Bee]

Working in DC, sometimes not having a sense of smell is an advantage. :D

[Chubby]

you do realize that smell is the most closely related to memory don't you? for this reason I said taste since there's no way in hell I'd pick one of the other three.

[Radii]

I also voted smell as I already have a very very weak sense of smell, much like Bee I assume. I can only smell something if it's really strong or really really distinct. I can't tell when my fiancee is wearing perfume if she doesn't wear a ton, most foods I can't smell, candle scents I can't smell unless I put the candle right to my nose, etc.

[Bee]

It's also pretty common for people who have lost the sense of smell to have speech problems. After my accident I had to go to a speech therapist for about 2 years. I still have a slight speech issue, but most people just think it's an accent from New England or Lousiana or someplace like that.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I can still taste things, but it's scaled down a lot. Something has to be pretty spicy or strong tasting for me to really notice it. Like with soda, I can't taste the difference between Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, etc. They all taste the same to me.

I'm like Bee, no sense of smell. Can't remember when I lost it, but I can't remember smelling much of anything. Tastes are much more general, you can't taste subtleties at all, but you can pick things out. All in all, it aint too bad.

[corbes]

I'll take the challenge, and go with sight.

[MacroGuru]

Well, I am deaf in my right ear, and I have partial hearing in my left due to taking an elbow to the ear in a basketball game and rupturing my ear drum.

I went with hearing, since I have always had the mono and never stereo. My sight, smell and taste are heightened because of my loss, it's pretty cool actually.

[gstelmack]

I'm like Bee, no sense of smell. Can't remember when I lost it, but I can't remember smelling much of anything. Tastes are much more general, you can't taste subtleties at all, but you can pick things out. All in all, it aint too bad.
Me, three! Or is it four by now?

[wishbone]

I went with hearing, since I have always had the mono and never stereo. My sight, smell and taste are heightened because of my loss, it's pretty cool actually.

I'll lose my sense of smell just so my sight, touch and hearing improve. When I'm 60 I'll trade in my sense of taste for another improvement and shouldn't need a hearing aid! :)

[sovereignstar]

There's advantages to not being able to smell stuff. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/cool.gif

[Surtt]

It seames to me, if I remember right, you can only taste 4 things.
Sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

The rest comes from you sense of smell.

[sabotai]

I pass by a pig farm on my way to work everyday. Sometimes I wish I didn't have my sense of smell.

[Router Help]

Taste for sure, if everything tasted the same it would be really easy to eat healthy.

[Bonegavel]

i vote taste because smell is an extremely important sense (I dated a girl in college that didn't have a sense of smell and it was a huge obstacle for a lot of things), though not near as important as sight, touch, and hearing. Also, maybe not being able to taste food would lessen my desire to eat so damn much.

rank
1) sight
2) hearing
3) touch
4) smell
5) taste

[Eaglesfan27]

Losing my sight is a big fear. Losing my sense of touch would be very annoying and would be my second biggest loss. Loss of hearing would be 3rd, but close to touch. I certainly don't want to lose any of those 3. Taste is key to enjoying food, but I wouldn't mind losing it that much. However, I would least mind losing my sense of smell.

[QuikSand]

It seames to me, if I remember right, you can only taste 4 things.
Sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

The rest comes from you sense of smell.

Partially correct, partially obsolete.

The concept isn't that other, more complicated tastes, come from other sources like smell - but that they are essentially just combinations of the basic four tastes. Of course, there is some subtlety involved -- but that's how our sense of taste works, it's all based on a few simple building blocks.


And the obsolete part, since we went to school, was that they have since identified a fifth basic taste -- called umami. The main example of something that triggers this particular taste is monosodium glutamate (MSG). And it's apparently a demonstrably different taste than any of the basic four... we even have special taste buds for it. Go figure.

[Eaglesfan27]

Why would anyone vote sight as the sense they would choose to lose?

[wig]

I'd rather lose my sense of irony.

[Kodos]

I've lost my common sense. Does that count?

[korme]

I didn't know losing your sense of smell was so common.

[sterlingice]

Anyone else find it a bit eerie that this poll went up hours before Ray Charles died?

SI

[Sun Tzu]

I lost my sense of individuality long, long ago.

eh...eh?

[LionsFan10]

I voted smell, although I don't know how I could go without it. When I'm sick, and my nose is plugged I can't eat because it feels like everything tastes the same and that just kills me, I love to eat and having no smell hurts that a lot. Having no taste at all would be even worse so smell it is.

[Surtt]

a fifth basic taste -- called umami.

That certainly doesn't sound very appetizing.

[Fritz]

Partially correct, partially obsolete.

And the obsolete part, since we went to school, was that they have since identified a fifth basic taste -- called bukkake.


Taste away, Capt'n.

[dawgfan]

Like most, I would hate to lose sight, hearing and touch. The reason I choose to keep smell over taste is twofold:

- smell is so tightly intertwined with memory

- taste to me is a luxury that I could live without; if I lost sense of taste think how much easier it would be to eat healthy

[Mustang]

Why would anyone vote sight as the sense they would choose to lose?

Worked for Daredevil...

[finkenst]

i want to lose my sixth sense.

[JAG]

I can't believe someone voted for touch. I think touch is the sense I would least like to lose. Everyone's gone without sight at some point in their lives (dark room for example) and possibly without sound, but having no sense of touch would be totally alien. You couldn't walk, reach in your pocket for a set of keys, type on a keyboard, or enjoy sex (or even have it). I'm not saying life wouldn't change without being able to see or hear, but I can't even fathom losing my sense of touch.