{"id":13707,"date":"2012-04-04T18:27:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T00:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=13707"},"modified":"2016-05-13T09:32:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T15:32:04","slug":"trust-your-senses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/?p=13707","title":{"rendered":"Trust Your Senses?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bee Hiving Moon<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I’ve reached the age when hearing that I have mild cataracts counts as a good thing. \u00a0Eye exam today. \u00a0Playing space invaders (visual field), still good in both eyes in spite of the glaucoma (eye drops).<\/p>\n

My\u00a0ophthalmologist of 20+ years retired last year so this is only my second time with Dr. Brown. \u00a0She’s about 5 feet tall. \u00a0That’s with platforms. \u00a0She’s bright. “I see a stable eye today,”\u00a0\u00a0she said. \u00a0A stable eye. \u00a0A good thing at any age.<\/p>\n

Every time I to go the ophthalmologist (which I cannot spell) my thoughts turn to epistemology. \u00a0Today I got to thinking about medical specialties that focus on senses. \u00a0ENT. \u00a0Dermatology. (sort of) Ophthalmology.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brown said to me today, “This visual field test tells me that your optic nerve is in good health.” A lot of ink has been spilled in philosophy over the degree to which we can trust our senses–since they stand between us and the world out there–but it occurred to me today that we never consider less than optimal senses. \u00a0What kind of information does an unhealthy optical nerve give me? \u00a0Does the degradation of visual stimuli correspond to a diminished or corrupted reality for me? \u00a0Ditto for olfactory, taste, touch, hearing.<\/p>\n

I know my world is different from yours acoustically. \u00a0With only one ear bringing in sound \"\"<\/a>data I cannot easily find the source of sound. \u00a0My aural world is less rich than yours. \u00a0 I don’t know that it’s less real, but it’s different. \u00a0In some critical instances, very different.<\/p>\n

Two examples.<\/p>\n

Emergency vehicles. \u00a0When I hear a siren while I’m driving, I can’t tell where it is. \u00a0That’s different than the experience of a person who hears normally.<\/p>\n

Vehicles approaching in a manner other than customary. \u00a0In England where they drive on the left I had to constantly remind myself to pay very close attention. \u00a0From the left is where I don’t hear.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I’m curious about sensory data. \u00a0And what it can and can’t tell us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Bee Hiving Moon I’ve reached the age when hearing that I have mild cataracts counts as a good thing. \u00a0Eye exam today. \u00a0Playing space invaders (visual field), still good in … Continue reading Trust Your Senses?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,127],"tags":[4045,1507,1054,1895],"class_list":["post-13707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aging","category-health","tag-cataract","tag-ear","tag-eye","tag-glaucoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40235,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13707\/revisions\/40235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}