Straight up, what would the world be like if everyone was blind?
How would we change, how would society change, how would how we treat each other change, how would the social interactions change. As for how would we adapt? An interesting question as well but a secondary one. Also, would you consider living in such a world? Are there possible benefits/pros that exist, that may not necessarily outweigh the cons?
And by blind I mean... 100% blind, as if your eyes did not exist. Or what if you couldn't recognize human faces / everyone looks the same or you couldn't differentiate people based on physical appearance. For example, you are equally likely to engage anyone in a conversation based on physical appearance.
However with the last one, you lose something important as well, since... humans have developed stereotypes for a reason and not all stereotypes are bad... key: the "so what?" quesiton / point im trying to discuss I guess the main point isn't really blindness but perhaps that social interactions would be better if we didn't know what the other person looked like. Not exactly like online communication, more like... being able to see them and see non-verbal communication but... not seeing their race, age, style of clothing, level of attractiveness... etc..
If we did not have eyes, we would have developed echo-location or some other way of surveying our surroundings. Evolution wouldn't have been very kind to humanity otherwise.
If you instead are asking, what if suddenly everyone went blind in the current world... well. Almost everything would get shut down. You can't drive/work/etc without vision. Human interaction isn't as much of a problem as daily functions such as cooking etc.
For your other one, where we couldn't differentiate people based on appearances... Everyone would wear nametags. It would be customary to declare your name when you meet someone. We would differentiate people by their voices. Human-kind is clever, and I doubt it'd be a problem.
If we all suddenly went blind, the vast majority of humanity would die quickly as we'd lose almost all infrastructure, communication, and ability to survive without such things. Once all of the food any given person knows the location of even while blind is gone, they'd just starve to death (we'd still have tap water which would be easy enough to get blind).
Watch Blindness(Movie), not that great but I'd say it illustrated alot if we were to turn blind the next day.
If we were always blind I'd say we'd be alot more compasionate and not such a big bunch of douchebags.
Would I want to live in such a world, I guess, only if I didn't know what good comes out of being able to see... I do think we as a human race would benefit alot from going blind though. It would just take like a year to give some positive outcome.
On February 06 2012 16:05 Box.N.Straw wrote: I'm pretty sure there's a movie made about this...I think it was called Blindness
interesting, but not quite what i mean with this thread... sigh... sudden blindness or blindness as a disease wasn't quite what i was thinking of. i was thinking more of social blindness? blindness to social norms of appearance? ahh something like that... blah
Creatures that live blind have made adaptions to living blind....eg. mole?
anyways... in terms of social interactions, we'd find different ways besides physical appears, eg, voice, speed (assuming we could sense how fast someone did something), efficiency, etc...
On February 06 2012 16:05 Proseat wrote: There'd be a lot more dates.
yeah like this =o
On February 06 2012 16:16 Keitzer wrote: anyways... in terms of social interactions, we'd find different ways besides physical appears, eg, voice, speed (assuming we could sense how fast someone did something), efficiency, etc...
and also like this... but hmm... that's kind of true i guess, and accents... maybe we would find new ways to adapt and create new stereotypes...
On February 06 2012 16:16 Keitzer wrote: anyways... in terms of social interactions, we'd find different ways besides physical appears, eg, voice, speed (assuming we could sense how fast someone did something), efficiency, etc...
and also like this... but hmm... that's kind of true i guess, and accents... maybe we would find new ways to adapt and create new stereotypes...
well... just from watching the trailer to Blindness, you notice people revert back to their ways of government, currency, need for food, etc... and violence still occurs, just on a different level
There is a powerful novelette by John Varley called The Persistence of Vision, where everyone in a town is not only blind but deaf and invent a language of touch. It’s very interesting, though if you go by that life would periodically turn into a sex orgy.
Considering eyes are one of the earliest biological parts to form... there would have to be a specific reason this never happened. Like there was no light. which would mean no life. Most technology wouldnt have been invented.
On February 06 2012 16:52 KimJongChill wrote: Well, like the Falmer, we would become aggressive and develop a fondness for glowing mushrooms and giant arthropods.
Goddamnit, when I saw this thread, the Falmer were the first thing that came to mind. You kind of become reallyacquainted with the Falmer when you're exploring that infinitely large expanse called Blackreach, not to mention all the other Dwemer ruins.
Richard Nixon would have been voted President over JFK, for one... among a lot of other things. Technology probably wouldn't be at what it is today without sight to guide our hands. People will probably judge one another by their voices rather than their appearance.
This is actually a pretty interesting question. Let's imagine that all life grew up without the ability to detect electromagnetic radiation. This ability has of course evolved countless times throughout evolution because a lot of useful information is carried by EM. But it's not the only modality available to us--we also have pressure waves, which we can detect as sound through air, or as vibrations through solid. We have some limited amount of chemical detection, via our nose and tongue. We can also detect basic pressure, in general.
I think people would survive just fine. Society would develop with these alternative sensory modalities in mind, so instead of visual cues, everything would be auditory and touch-based. Lots of sounds indicating different features, or different surface textures indicating others. For example, different notes might be ascribed to very common pieces of information that we use all the time--like "open" or "closed" for a store, elevator status, etc.
With respect to discrimination, which I think this post was hinting at, it's hard to say. I think that discrimination is something inherent in our psyche that's derived from a basic sense of tribalism--we consider "outsiders" to automatically be the enemy, and have an innate desire to protect those more genetically (and to us, therefore visually) similar. In a world without sight, I think things like quality of voice might replace skin color--what I'm saying is that people would find other features by which they can discriminate.
Discrimination doesn't need eyes per se. It's just easier to differentiate with eyes. We could still use ears to look down on people. ... figuratively speaking.
On February 06 2012 17:11 iTzSnypah wrote: we would tap into our spinal cord and put in video cameras... we have the technology to do it.. just a matter of doing it.
Well before this we'd have to first discover the concept of "vision". That's kind of hard if nobody has ever been born with eyes.
On February 06 2012 17:10 supdubdup wrote: God would wipe us all out in a flood and try again.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Why its funny? Well because we just got hit by a 6.8 Earthquake here in Cebu, Philippines and there were tons of panic because of talks of Tsunami. And I found that all very amusing because it was just a false alarm.
Oh and God couldnt flood us to oblivion because God's already under oblivion. LOL
Pretty sure we'd all be dead... I don't believe, in our current state, our race could survive. We might be able to adapt to deal with a gradual weakening of our sight over time, as society came to terms with it... But sudden 'lights out'? Yeah, we'd be fucked.
We would have to be a lot more strict on what kind of noise people make during porn video audio tapes. One day we'll have women reciting epic poems with rhythmic beats being provided by faps and emphasis punctuated by grunts.
well its not a realistic movie I think , its more about human behavior and how we separate from the mass the things we cannot understand or solve. The blindness in the movie is not stated as a normal blindness and not subject to natural selection , is more like a curse that affects mankind or somewhat sci-fi-esque.
The movie is quite a drama , not many things in it make you feel good.
On February 06 2012 17:03 Saline wrote: This is actually a pretty interesting question. Let's imagine that all life grew up without the ability to detect electromagnetic radiation. This ability has of course evolved countless times throughout evolution because a lot of useful information is carried by EM. But it's not the only modality available to us--we also have pressure waves, which we can detect as sound through air, or as vibrations through solid. We have some limited amount of chemical detection, via our nose and tongue. We can also detect basic pressure, in general.
I think people would survive just fine. Society would develop with these alternative sensory modalities in mind, so instead of visual cues, everything would be auditory and touch-based. Lots of sounds indicating different features, or different surface textures indicating others. For example, different notes might be ascribed to very common pieces of information that we use all the time--like "open" or "closed" for a store, elevator status, etc.
With respect to discrimination, which I think this post was hinting at, it's hard to say. I think that discrimination is something inherent in our psyche that's derived from a basic sense of tribalism--we consider "outsiders" to automatically be the enemy, and have an innate desire to protect those more genetically (and to us, therefore visually) similar. In a world without sight, I think things like quality of voice might replace skin color--what I'm saying is that people would find other features by which they can discriminate.
The question is kinda too poorly defined to give a single answer.
If you mean we were suddenly to turn blind today, well we already know which areas of the brain to stimulate to at least cause us to 'see' black and white phospenes. In fact we already have bionic eye projects, to give a low level of vision to the blind. They are not very good, but good enough for people with them to follow engineer's instructions to make more/ implant them on people. It would create chaos at first as everyone panics, and no small amount of people would die, probably most of teh world, but eventually enough people will be installed with these rudimentary devices for society to function like it did before (ignoring the effect of a great deal of people dying).
If in the same scenario but there was no chance of giving us sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation via technological means, then again a great deal of people would die. We are not well evolved to survive in the wild, and our cities are not well designed to be maintained exclusively by blind people. Our infrastructure will collapse, and without our infrastructure most of us would die, extinction is a distinct possibility. However, small communities might still form to survive, possibly based around people who were already blind, and are therefore acclimatised to live without vision, if viable communities formed around those we might survive and learn to thrive without vision, would take some time for us to restructure all our technology to work without vision, but theoretically possible if we don't forget everything we already know before we adapt.
If we were to have evolved without vision, then frankly, we would not have evolved. The world is not kind to creatures without sight, any sort of civilization and human intelligence as we know it would be completely out of the question.
If by some miracle we were to evolve as we have except without vision, we'd probably already have the technology to deal with it. Society would honestly not be that different, all the signalling we do visually now would be done via touch and sound. We'd not be worried about physical appearance, but we'd still be superficial that way. Our discrimination via physical appearance stems from evolutionary pressure, it is a shortcut to estimating a potential mate's health. So we'd have found new ways to discriminate but life would work pretty much like it does now.
On February 06 2012 16:00 jodogohoo wrote: key: the "so what?" quesiton / point im trying to discuss I guess the main point isn't really blindness but perhaps that social interactions would be better if we didn't know what the other person looked like. Not exactly like online communication, more like... being able to see them and see non-verbal communication but... not seeing their race, age, style of clothing, level of attractiveness... etc..
Your assumption that perception of age, race and "level of attractiveness" depend solely on vision is both naive and vaguely insulting to blind people.
Suffice it to say, civilization would end if everybody went blind overnight. Homo Sapiens would probably go extinct. A small minority of blind people can lead a perfectly normal life. A large majority of blind people would result in complete chaos: humans as a whole are dependent on vision. Our other senses aren't sufficiently developed to take over in a way to allow us to perform all necessary tasks.
If your question was more in line with "what would society look like if we had evolved without eyes", then my answer is: Nobody knows, tiddelypom. Nobody cares, tiddelypom.
Siri, calculate the distance my hand needs to travel to pick up the nearest food.
I doubt humans would have existed without eyes, because physically we are already quite pathetic compared to most animals and we have to rely on tools to even survive, let alone thrive. I mean, imagine a caveman trying to make some fire, not only does he have to feel for flints, but now he has to scorch his hand to acknowledge that he has succeeded in making a fire. We'd be the laughing stock of the food chain.
If we would go blind now, our hunting methods would consist of driving over the countryside in the hope we hit an animal with it, then overheating the engine to cook the meat. This would only aid us until all the cars go broke though, and we might ignite a few forests and fields along the way.
On February 06 2012 20:46 Chaosvuistje wrote: Siri, calculate the distance my hand needs to travel to pick up the nearest food.
Hehe as an aside, that would actually not work. For all the elegance of our biological system, we are terrible at odometry.
Seriously, try picking up a cup on a table, then putting it back, then closing your eyes and trying to pick it up again, you will miss. We are so used to visual servoing we don't even notice we are doing it anymore, we are so bad at odometry we are now looking at implementing visual servoing in robotics, despite robots actually being pretty damn good at odometry ><
If everyone just became blind instantly then our society would collapse and we would have to rebuild it with the little knowledge we have about living blind. Some inventions that help blind people "see" like bats might be around in time for normal daily existence to still continue.
If we are talking about humans always being blind, never developing eyesight, then we would probably have different senses or stronger ones to make up for that fact.
we would never know of vision that existed and we would have minimal chances of survival also we woudlnt have science that evolved... you never know there might be like feelings that humans will never know and understand
Naturally we would not all just go extinct, that is silly. We are an adaptable species. Even when blind, we have many advantages over every other species in the world. I am sure the population would be thinned out, long-distance travel would become impossible so we'd have to remain in tightly-knit communities, and we'd regress to a much simpler age. I think mass blindness would be a lot like a zombie apocalypse in terms of its effects; it will just force upon us a greater reliance on our fellow human beings.
I don't think it would be so bad at all id eeryone was blind. I mean,, peple wouldbe be less shlaaow .you knoq? Anyway I don't think it would impede xommunication very muc at akk. See? I'm tyoig thi sout without looking and its just fine. See?
I think people would be shallow n the sense that oeioke w=wutg oewrrt ciuceas wiyk sv egt attraicte obes, U subom qhR SI ITIY RGUBK?
On February 06 2012 23:06 Ashakyre wrote: I don't think it would be so bad at all id eeryone was blind. I mean,, peple wouldbe be less shlaaow .you knoq? Anyway I don't think it would impede xommunication very muc at akk. See? I'm tyoig thi sout without looking and its just fine. See?
I think people would be shallow n the sense that oeioke w=wutg oewrrt ciuceas wiyk sv egt attraicte obes, U subom qhR SI ITIY RGUBK?
Sorry, I know you put a lot of effort into typing like you're blind, but we're all blind too so we can't read it, remember?
Ok so every one in the world loses one of their 5 senses completely. That's pretty cool.
What would happen is probably that since we don't have sight, every other 4 senses will either be enhanced or a new one will be created. Pretty cool idea :D
So instead of driving, maybe people just sit on platforms pulled by rope, and when cooking maybe people only use electronics to prepare edibles... weird
Is it, if society, as it is right now, suddenly became blind as a whole magically? Or if we were blind from the start and evolved like this into the state we are, blind? Well, if the former, we're going to need a lot more seeing eye dogs and canes. If the second one, we would have evolved like that for a reason. Perhaps the world is abnormally dark, or we have very acute senses elsewhere, or whatever -- so perhaps that's how we would "see" each other -- by our other senses. The smell, touch, etc. I know this is going to sound a bit perverted, but if we all evolved as blind creatures, touching would be far more frequent and socially acceptable as a means of communication.
On February 06 2012 23:06 Ashakyre wrote: I don't think it would be so bad at all id eeryone was blind. I mean,, peple wouldbe be less shlaaow .you knoq? Anyway I don't think it would impede xommunication very muc at akk. See? I'm tyoig thi sout without looking and its just fine. See?
I think people would be shallow n the sense that oeioke w=wutg oewrrt ciuceas wiyk sv egt attraicte obes, U subom qhR SI ITIY RGUBK?
Sorry, I know you put a lot of effort into typing like you're blind, but we're all blind too so we can't read it, remember?
Good point, none offense taken, glad none given. But, sometimes it's more about trying out an idea than pure, literal 1-for-1 logic, plus, I can't do anything to make someone else operate without vision.
if we were all blind the other 90% of our brains would have become active and we would now be superhuman in the year 2012. straight up response i believe it.
If everyone randomly turned blind, the vast majority of humanity would die out in a few weeks imo. The rest would be dead in a month or two, tops. Perhaps a tiny tiny minority of people might survive in areas with abundant food, but I maintain that 99.9999% of us would be dead pretty quickly.
The problem is food. How do you get it? Can farms keep producing at the same level as before when no one can drive a tractor? Can they get that food on a truck and drive it to the cities and put it in supermarkets for the everyday city-dweller to purchase and eat? It'd be completely impossible to feed the world. Cities would start starving in weeks, rural areas a bit later, and eventually anyone that doesn't personally plant and pick and grow their own food would eventually be left with nothing to eat. Even those folks would have to be lucky.
I think you'd have to be an already-blind farmer/grower with an already set up blind-person-worked farm to have any chance in hell to survive, lol.
"For entertainment the one and only "Starcraft Legacy" SlayerS_`BoxeR` played a match vs a blind Starcraft player by the name of MinSuk. To be fair they made SlayerS_`BoxeR` wear a blindfold for the first 3 minutes of the match. But Boxer took advantage of MinSuk's disability in everyway he could to show that there is no sympathy in the Terran Emperor, not even for blind people.'"
On February 07 2012 00:09 thezanursic wrote: The already blind would survive in certain situations.
Yeah, they would have the upper hand, definitely. I really wanna watch the movie that was posted on this page, it seems interesting and terrifying. I hope an illness like that never pops up.
On February 06 2012 16:03 shadowboxer wrote: No one would put up with women, that's for sure.
Best response ever, LMAO :D
By the way, is the op's question: "what would happen if everyone suddenly became blind right now?" or "what if human beings never had had eyesight in the first place?", because those two questions are similar, but their respective answers are not.
Relatively, I don't think it would make a difference. Certainly, if everyone in the world woke up tomorrow and no one could see, it would be a catastrophe. The world would shut down for a a few weeks, but, eventually, people would adjust.
It's a really interesting question from an economic point of view. The markets would go completely haywire. Demand for things like cars, laptops, books, and glasses would plummet. things like CDs would be vastly more in demand.
I also think that new leaps in technology would be made in audio and nasal technology-- maybe some sort of technological advancement in human echolocation. We're not really looking into it now because we don't have a huge demand for it, but I think it'd be one of the first major breakthroughs in audio-visual technology if everyone became blind tomorrow.
On February 07 2012 00:36 mbr2321 wrote: Relatively, I don't think it would make a difference. Certainly, if everyone in the world woke up tomorrow and no one could see, it would be a catastrophe. The world would shut down for a a few weeks, but, eventually, people would adjust.
It's a really interesting question from an economic point of view. The markets would go completely haywire. Demand for things like cars, laptops, books, and glasses would plummet. things like CDs would be vastly more in demand.
I also think that new leaps in technology would be made in audio and nasal technology-- maybe some sort of technological advancement in human echolocation. We're not really looking into it now because we don't have a huge demand for it, but I think it'd be one of the first major breakthroughs in audio-visual technology if everyone became blind tomorrow.
Except not just you, the end consumer, is going blind. The entire world is suddenly stricken.
So the scientists that work on that new technology are now also blind. Can they still do their work? Can they still use any of the equipment at their lab? Can they still get to their lab on a regular basis? Is going to work even a priority for them when merely getting a meal may not be possible after a week or two?
Pretty sure everyone starves to death pretty quickly.
What would the world be like if everyone were to use the proper word for conditionals? As opposed it if everyone were to use the word for past tense as is commonly used today.
Anyway, I would imagine that we would all have much better hearing either through evolution or technological design. All machines would have to have interfaces that could be understood and interacted with by those who don't have sight. We would probably have a lot more automated things.
In all seriousness, if everyone would be blind civilisation would end within days. All technological progress would come to a halt and humans will probably die out. It in in theory possible to adept but i dont see this as realy achieveable in a timeframe short enough to prevent extinction.
blind people wont survive either, they only can survive in a structured society that also has people with vision to take care of infrastructure and what not. Productivity of blind people is extremely low and the survival rate of blind people who are lost in the wilderness is extremely low i would asume this is not to bash them btw! its just rational observation, they depend on people with vision around them.
Actually I saw a small report about a blind boy who can use the echo of sounds he makes to navigate through a supermarket or the city. He can even tell the distance to stairs e.g. Thats incredible, sure it requires a lot to be able to do that, but you have to take into account what a human is capable of.
Most of the world would die, how are farmers goona farm, how are we goona get the product out to the people when you cant drive a truck/ship/plane. If you somehow got past all that, money would become worthless, it would be huge free for all for food, who would work their job honestly.
On February 07 2012 00:36 mbr2321 wrote: Relatively, I don't think it would make a difference. Certainly, if everyone in the world woke up tomorrow and no one could see, it would be a catastrophe. The world would shut down for a a few weeks, but, eventually, people would adjust.
It's a really interesting question from an economic point of view. The markets would go completely haywire. Demand for things like cars, laptops, books, and glasses would plummet. things like CDs would be vastly more in demand.
I also think that new leaps in technology would be made in audio and nasal technology-- maybe some sort of technological advancement in human echolocation. We're not really looking into it now because we don't have a huge demand for it, but I think it'd be one of the first major breakthroughs in audio-visual technology if everyone became blind tomorrow.
Except not just you, the end consumer, is going blind. The entire world is suddenly stricken.
So the scientists that work on that new technology are now also blind. Can they still do their work? Can they still use any of the equipment at their lab? Can they still get to their lab on a regular basis? Is going to work even a priority for them when merely getting a meal may not be possible after a week or two?
Pretty sure everyone starves to death pretty quickly.
I don't think so. Certainly there will be people who won't be able to adjust, but we have other senses on which to rely. I think the human spirit and the need to survive and repopulate will overcome the major setback that sudden blindness will bring.
Insofar as science goes, scientific observation relies on more than just sight. Certainly without sight it will be more challenging, but after the entire world adjusts, some semblance of normality will resume. It will be a different normal-- people will rely on other senses a lot more, and the population may be significantly lessened, but humanity itself won't die out completely. People can find food without sight.
On February 07 2012 01:00 OrangeSoda wrote: Most of the world would die, how are farmers goona farm, how are we goona get the product out to the people when you cant drive a truck/ship/plane. If you somehow got past all that, money would become worthless, it would be huge free for all for food, who would work their job honestly.
On February 07 2012 01:00 OrangeSoda wrote: Most of the world would die, how are farmers goona farm, how are we goona get the product out to the people when you cant drive a truck/ship/plane. If you somehow got past all that, money would become worthless, it would be huge free for all for food, who would work their job honestly.
I think you can farm without your eyes.
You can do a lot of things without your eyes, i can operate a car without them, ill probably kill someone or myself in the process though.
yes you can farm without your eyes but you then need into account you need to do everything involving farming without your eyes, This also includes roads, building the farm itself, inventing tools to help overcome your handicap like echo systems to help you find the cows , beeing a vet and what not All thoose tools would have to be invented by blind people as well! It realy would lead to the end of humanity in probably 100 years i would guess.
On February 07 2012 00:36 mbr2321 wrote: Relatively, I don't think it would make a difference. Certainly, if everyone in the world woke up tomorrow and no one could see, it would be a catastrophe. The world would shut down for a a few weeks, but, eventually, people would adjust.
It's a really interesting question from an economic point of view. The markets would go completely haywire. Demand for things like cars, laptops, books, and glasses would plummet. things like CDs would be vastly more in demand.
I also think that new leaps in technology would be made in audio and nasal technology-- maybe some sort of technological advancement in human echolocation. We're not really looking into it now because we don't have a huge demand for it, but I think it'd be one of the first major breakthroughs in audio-visual technology if everyone became blind tomorrow.
Except not just you, the end consumer, is going blind. The entire world is suddenly stricken.
So the scientists that work on that new technology are now also blind. Can they still do their work? Can they still use any of the equipment at their lab? Can they still get to their lab on a regular basis? Is going to work even a priority for them when merely getting a meal may not be possible after a week or two?
Pretty sure everyone starves to death pretty quickly.
I don't think so. Certainly there will be people who won't be able to adjust, but we have other senses on which to rely. I think the human spirit and the need to survive and repopulate will overcome the major setback that sudden blindness will bring.
Insofar as science goes, scientific observation relies on more than just sight. Certainly without sight it will be more challenging, but after the entire world adjusts, some semblance of normality will resume. It will be a different normal-- people will rely on other senses a lot more, and the population may be significantly lessened, but humanity itself won't die out completely. People can find food without sight.
An individual can find food in his cabinet while blind, sure.
Feeding society for longer than it takes to eat all the food in the local supermarket, nope.
What if our eyes were not in our face but on our asses? I really wonder that and want to make a thread on TL about it! Would we were sunglasses on our asses then? If we looked deep into our eyes would we then stand ass to ass bent forward next to each other?
Will I get banned if I open another thread asking 'What would the world be like if...'? This thread is pointless. All it does is keep people from doing important shit and give them a reason to spam.
most people would die but either the very very fat (because they have enough fat to sustain themselves) or the very very fit (being able to run faster, stronger, etc.) would survive. or those who are already blind. we would stop judging people by their appearance obviously but take more effort to judge them by their smell, or the sound of their voice (not to be racist but generally different ethnicities have different sounding voices). we would still find people attractive or have sex with them depending on their smell or their voice (people even today say things like "he or she has a "hot" voice). maybe people would brush their teeth more or take more frequent showers because others would judge them more by the smell of their breath and their body odor as well lol. we could also guess by someone's accent where they come from. we would need to stay closer to each other only to survive, and we could still make friends/form alliances through distinguishing people by their voices or smells. however violence would be a problem because people could just assault others and law enforcement would be very difficult or impractical, so justice would hardly ever be served
EPT
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