Prose

the senses

written by: Chrome

eyes: vision is reception of all visuo-sensory data. That data is analyzed elsewhere, but there are secondary components to vision beyond simply receiving- prevision is seeing something before it happens, either consciously/deliberately or accidentally. It's possible that some data which is received by the ears could be converted into visual memories, and likewise smell taste or touch, but this might take away from their re-use or may take too long to convert... In which case vision may be the pinnacle in the sensory hierarchy. Further, some things we shouldn't look at, and some things we don't want to look at. These may affect the overall package, at least in a societal setting. In nature we may go ahead and look at these things, so there may be recessive or vestigial areas for these. Sight in underwater creatures is less important due to light being skewed by water. Fog likely has a similar effect, so any kind of ideal or practical eye would have to be made to deal with these environmental situations. total visual range is a factor as well; as is colour perception. some people have "tetrachromacy", that is, they perceive colours on a wider scale than 'ordinary' people, with four colour-perception genes instead of two. eyesight is normally divided into rods and cones.

mouth: if we should ask or answer any question, we should be able to form our mouths around them; however: there is no way to answer ANY question with the same one answer, so there is at least more than one sound, word, notion/explanation in a language. Our mouth must wrap around and suck in a vast area- sucking for breathing, and wrapping to form around any sound or answer we'll produce. Can the mouth be used as a weapon? Sperm whales can produce the loudest sound of any animal on this planet, and use their heads/foreheads as amplifiers. The sound produced, underwater at least, is sufficient to stun prey several metres away if not outright deafen it or reduce it to jelly. On land, producing sound requires considerably more effort so it's less common to see this sort of thing. breathing itself is a complicated activity;we need to be able to inhale the most useful elements from an atmosphere most expediently while still filtering out or otherwise excreting the useless or harmful materials. Analyzing these elements probably takes place elsewhere, but the mouth and the lungs and/or other breathing-related functions should logically work in harmony. Thirdly, the mouth is also used for eating, and this is an incredibly sophisticated process which has been reduced to simply shovelling and swallowing. We no longer normally use our mouths for attacking and destroying our enemies. It's probably just as well, since synthesizing the other two processes and this third into a single inlet is enough to worry about.

nose: the nose only inhales, on the outside, although inside it processes olfactory information. how that information is processed or received is important- this will place requirements on the shape and total size of the nose, as well as considering how important smell is to overall survival and inquiry perception.

ears: sound has many forms. the european scale has 12 notes in what's called an "octave". 6 of these notes are connected to DNA and affect it (D-G or G-D), the other six are 'safe' (G# - C# or C# - G#). Many languages are tonal, but primarily the sino-tibetan group and certain african languages... In these, the pitch and variation in pitch indicate a value which is added to the word/information... In dogs a high or rising pitch indicates interrogation or submission, where a low growl or descending pitch indicates aggression or danger. The immediacy of these sounds and their connotation improves the efficiency of a spoken language, but sacrifices information- if a body can immunize itself to short or wide vibrations (this may connect to gravity), then they will be more receptive to any which sound without a preconceived analysis.