Questions For Sighted People

Tommy, who's been blind since birth, asks questions about having sight.

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Related Videos:

Which Sense Would I Give Up For Sight?

Sh*t People Say To Blind People

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Videos & Photos:

Room-MySerenityCrafts
Woman-Lye Hock Chuah
Car 1-NRMA Motoring and Services
Car 2-Martin Abegglen
Car 3-Peter Firminger
Vegetables-Christopher
Fruit-Wiennat Mongkulmann
Food-US Dept of Health & Human Services
Bruce WIllis-Gage Skidmore
Miley Cyrus-JJ Duncan
Robert Downey Jr-Alyssa Patton
Fashion-IdrisMedia2
Shoes-Robert & Mihaela
Lost and Found-Paul Gorbould
Picking Up Money-Thomas Leuthard
Parking Lot-Alex

#sight #vision #eyes

[timouriskarous]

wow we really do take sight for granted...

[staticklingon]

"What's it like to go somewhere all by yourself?" This broke my heart.

[idk-knnw]

Tommy Edison makes me feel like I have superpowers. And I love it.

[MERTZY]

This made me feel so sad. I take sight for granted and dont even appreciate the beauty of the world :/

[danieldotson]

Blind guy - "OPEN YOUR EYES!"

[DrShaym]

Each color has a unique appearance. We can distinguish between colors just as easily as you can distinguish between sounds. Imagine the difference between the sound of a dog barking and a phone ringing. That's how different the colors red and blue look to sighted people.

We don't always know exactly where everything is in a room just by looking. If the room is too dark, we have just as much trouble finding things as you might. Also, if the room is really cluttered, a small object might be difficult to find if it's mixed in with a lot of other objects of similar size, shape, and color. Imagine playing a bunch of songs on different radios at the same time, then trying to tell which song is coming from which radio. The same sort of blending of sensations can happen with our sight.

Sighted people can see shapes from a distance. Different objects feature a particular combination of shapes which can be used to identify them just by looking. Although objects such as cars often vary widely in appearance, they can still be identified as cars because of common features such as wheels and windows. You can know the model of a particular car because different manufacturers like to include distinguishing features in their designs. It's similar with faces. You can identify a person by looking at their face because even though we all have two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, the size, spacing, and color of these features are unique enough that we can associate them with a particular individual. Just like you might be able to identify a person by their voice, we can identify a person by their facial appearance, and remembering and keeping track of them isn't difficult. Just like how you can keep track of different words and their meaning, we can keep track of different faces.

We can know what somebody looks like without ever actually meeting them by looking at at picture of them. A printed picture consists of ink on paper. Ink comes in different colors, and those colored inks can be printed on paper in such a way as to correspond to the appearance of a person or object.

Things can happen right in front of us without us realizing it because of limitations in the way the human brain processes information. It's kind of like how you could be having a conversation with somebody in a crowded shopping mall, and you tune out the other people to listen to the person you're talking to because the conversations of other people aren't a concern to you. There can be so much visual information to absorb that the brain can't handle it all, so it chooses to ignore certain things, and it often ignores things that it shouldn't have. So it's not that we didn't see it; it's that we simply didn't take notice of it.

We can lose things when we drop them because if we drop something, it can fall out of our field of view and bounce away somewhere where we couldn't see it. It can end up underneath something, or it could blend in with its surroundings and become difficult to see.

When there are a hundred other cars in a parking lot, they can obstruct your view of your own car. They can also look really similar to your own car, so you might struggle to tell which one is yours from a distance. The amount of detail we can resolve decreases with distance, so it can become difficult to identify something when it's too far away.

[LED]

Seeing is a lot like having a dozen conversations at once. You can really only pay attention to the conversations that you're most interested, the rest turns into background noise. If you're at a crowded restaurant and you hear everyone talking while you're having an actual conversation with the people you came with, you may be able to pick up on words or snippets from what others in the restaurant are talking about, but if someone quizzed you later on all the words and conversations you heard, you wouldn't remember. It's like that with sight. You can see everything around you, but you an hour later you can't remember most of it.

Or back to the restaurant analogy, say you're at the table and are supposed to be deciding what to order, but you get side tracked talking to your friends and the waitress comes back and asks what you want but you haven't even looked yet. Missing your exit is the same way. You're supposed to be looking for your exit but you get side tracked with talking or listening to music or looking at something else on the road and next thing you know you've driven past it.

For the hot girl question, back to the restaurant analogy, you're talking to your friends and trying to concentrate over all the other loud noise and chatter when suddenly you hear your favorite song. Or suddenly you smell something amazing. You're likely to stop paying full attention to the conversation you were having and focus on the song or try to figure out what it is that you're smelling. With an attractive girl you're walking along constantly surrounded by sights and sounds but for some reason she appeals to your senses and it's hard not to stop and look because what you're seeing gives you a good feeling.

Last one I'll try to explain is picking out clothes. Imagine if instead of things having a visual quality, they had smell in place of it. A shirt may feel really comfortable, but if it smells like straight up dog poop, you're not going to want to wear it. Or say you have a pair of shoes that aren't the most comfortable, but they smell like your favorite scent in the world and wearing them means you get to smell that scent all day long. For people with sight, sure, a shirt may feel good, but if looking at it gives you a feeling of disgust the way smelling poop or mold would, you don't want to wear it. If we see shoes that are beautiful to look at and make you want to keep staring the same way you want to keep smelling vanilla or pumpkin pie or cinnamon,

[sminem]

I am hoping that within the next twenty years science makes a major breakthrough for blind people and helping them see. I would love to see Tommy's reaction to the world, it would be amazing.

[Ochtone]

I'm going to answer all the questions as best I can. I feel like you've answered so many of my curiosities that I want to do the same.

1. How do you remember all those colours?
I guess in the same way you remember a sound, for example, in a song. You can think of a sound in a song after having heard it only once. You can even try to replicate it in your own mind - it may not be exactly the same when you come to actually listen to the song again, but it'll be close. I suppose in the same way that, unless you have a great memory or talent for pitch, when you sing a song to yourself and then play the song, although you may have been singing the correct melody, you can often be a note or two too high / low.

2. What's it like to look at a room and know exactly where everything is in the room?
Knowing where most things are is useful. I've never really thought about it before, but I get stressed enough when I have to run from room to room, late for work, looking for my keys. However, not being able to see that whole room in a snapshot would be even more frustrating. That being said, if an object is behind something else, it's totally hidden to sighted people too. Using your sight (touch) as comparison, if you imagine having a completely straight, unlimited extendable finger which cannot bend. In front of you is a brick and behind that brick is a pea. You can extend your finger to touch that brick and know it's there, however until you re-position either yourself or move the brick, you are not able to touch (/see) the pea that is behind it.

3. How can you stop and look at a hot chick?
It's fairly difficult not to. Not really sure why, just something that takes the attention! Imagine you're walking down a very narrow street, people are behind you and cannot get past, but then someone tells you the thing you like to touch most is on your right hand side for a short period of time only. You slow down a little to appreciate it, but you know you cant stop completely, you're in a rush and there's loads of people behind yo that you're holding up. That's it I suppose.

4. How do you remember what things look like? There's so many things.
It's less that I remember things detail in detail, but I can remember a general concept. Even if I were the world's best painter, I couldn't paint people I know as a perfect replication without having them there in the flesh. I think this is the same for most people. Until you remind yourself of the actual image, it's just a vague representation in your memory. It's the same sort of thing as the singing example in answer 1.

5. What's it like to go somewhere all by yourself?
So until I was 16, I lived most of my life in the countryside, no buses, no way of getting anywhere unless my parents drove me. I remember on my 16th Birthday getting a motorbike and that first journey. I take it for granted now, but that freedom is incredible. It's hard to describe. I felt proud of myself. I can't think of something to liken it to for you.

6. What's it like to be able to get around in the snow?
Wet and cold! It's fun for a few minutes, especially if you have a little snow fight, but really it's just inconvenient! You never know if you're stepping on hard or soft snow, if your foot is going to sink or be fine, if it's going to be icy and slippery or not. It's not that fun if you're actually trying to get somewhere. Too many unknowns.

7. How do you miss something that's going on right in front of your face?
Concentration. When you're not concentrating on vision, you can be seeing things but not really processing them. Like in a busy bar where the're lots of conversations going on, and if you listen hard you can pick out each conversation, but if you don't try to listen to them, they sink in to the background and you have no idea what anyone is saying around you, it's just a blur of sound.

8. How do you lose things when you can see?
I would reference my answer to question 2 with the example of the brick, the pea and the extendable non-bendable finger. That's one way. Another way is camouflage. If something is a close enough colour to that upon which it lays, then it can be difficult to differentiate the two. For example, if you were played a continual pitch noise, and then that noise was very slightly pitched up for a fraction of a second, you may notice the change, but the likelihood is you wouldn't first time round. So you play that sound again (i.e. look around again) and try and hear the difference. Eventually you'll get it - or give up!

[chibicloud]

I noticed others answering your questions, so I wanted to take a stab at it too, I hope you like!

1. How do you remember all those colors?
Same way you remember smells, building layouts, or people's voices. It's repetition and association with other known things.

2. What's it like to look at a room and know exactly where everything is in the room?
You say "know" and it's really just the same as how you "know" where everything is in your house, except our sight gives us one extra element to remember with.
Memory plays a big role in how we know where everything is.

3. How can you stop and look at a hot chick?
Imagine a beautiful song being played on the street, would you stop or slow down to listen? Beauty is like a song, so it's going to be different for everyone, but that's why some people stop when they see something beautiful.

4. How do you remember what things look like? There's so many things.
Repetition and association with other known things.
We learn a lot of these things when we're still developing language skills, so there's lots of stuff that people just know because they learned it while they were learning how to talk and walk.
But things like the Make and Model of Cars kind of falls under a specific interest. I know the difference between cars and trucks and minivans, but I can't tell a subaru from a honda.

5. What's it like to go somewhere all by yourself?
I don't understand this question, because from past videos it sounds like you go places on your own as well.
But if you mean driving, Phones, radio, and conversation are all distractions that need to be managed. Some people can drive with lots of distractions, some can't. Our brains can focus on things that matter, like stop lights and how fast we're moving, and ignore things like billboards and music. It's like a priority thing.

6. What's it like to be able to get around in the snow?
I find getting around in the snow to be incredibly difficult. unfortunately, sight doesn't replace coordination and quality footwear, and even then the snow is concealing our view of the ground, which can cause our eyes to be misled.
I personally stay inside.

7. How do you miss something that's going on right in front of your face?
Our brain does a lot of "filling in" of what we see, and we can't always put 100% focus into everything, much like you probably can't listen to every conversation in a busy room, so sometimes things are glossed over and we don't see them.

Seeing isn't like hearing. You can hear all around you, but you can't see all around you. Imagine if your ears only picked up sounds that were on your right or left side of your head, but not things that were directly above, below, in front of, or behind you. This is what seeing is like, so you can only see what's in your range.
Sure we can see all around us, but only if we're also moving our necks, and heads, and turning around constantly... we can't possibly do that all the time though, it'd be exhausting and overstimulating lol.

8. How do you lose things when you can see?
It's more a matter of forgetting. The lost thing might be obscured by another object that was carelessly placed, maybe a blanket was draped over the book you're looking for. Just as you wouldn't be able to find a button or sign if it were covered by a piece of glass, a sighted person can't always see an object that's covered by another object. This is where taking action and moving things can help reveal the lost item, but not all sighted people do that, myself included. :P

[aseguradojaicel]

We, sighted people, take for granted so many things. I'm so inspired by u tommy!!! This video is so deep. :)

[Too_Tall_]

I was trying to think of an answer to your question about 'how do we know where stuff is in your room?' and i ended up with more of an odd situation than a real 'answer'

Well, imagine if everything you owned made a little different sound... your chair makes a low hum, while your keys chirp... nothing particularly loud or anything, just everything making its own noise... eventually you'd start to register what made what sound, and you'd be able to tune things out so you could listen and find that one specific item. sure everything is still MAKING its own sound, and your ears are receiving all the information, but you can focus in on certain frequencies and examine those objects like that.

Maybe you walk into your room and you notice something doesnt sound the same.... You hear the chair's hum, you hear the key chirping... but something is off... did someone move something? is something gone? you can't place your finger on it, but what sound is missing? you've been in this room a million times and the sound is ALWAYS the same... but today some sound is just not there but you can't tell what...

What about when you're looking for your keys? You try to tune out the humming and the spring noises and focus on chirping... you hear something chirping and you think its your keys, but nope, it was your mini tool set that is a very similar sound to your keys

Maybe you listen and notice your cup sounds a bit weird... like... something just doesnt sound right... then you realize "Oh! It's the can of soda sending sound waves THROUGH my cup's sound waves, that's why it sounded weird...

So yeah... not really an answer i guess, but maybe its a way of thinking that gives you an idea how sight and sound can be similar...

[joltedjon]

XD I don't care about fashion, I always wear what is comfortable.

[realmofthemisunderstood]

To answer "how do you remember what things look like?", the same way you remember what things feel like

[CoResTaTiiCz]

If it's possible we need to raise money to get him sight

[Tetratronic]

"Good old ears" Fucking true.

[SomehowStillSane]

Alright, I'm gonna try to answer all the questions *cracks knuckles*
1.) How do you remember all those colors?
Well, we just sort of learn them over time. It's no different from how you can recognize a smell or a sound or a taste, we just learn each color over time.
2.) What's it like to look at a room, and you know exactly where everything is in a room?
We probably kind of take it for granted all the time. The best thing I can compare it to is when you're walking in a place that's really familiar. If you know where everything is, you can walk confidently, and you just sort of know where to go.
3.) So how come you stop and look at a hot chick?
There are certain features in a person that make them attractive. Symmetry, hair, clothing, and obviously your chest. When guys see an attractive girl or vice versa, there's got to be some sort of chemical reaction in the brain that makes you want to meet that person. If they look good, it means they're healthy physically, and from a biological standpoint that makes them viable mating material, or atleast friend material. It's sort of like when you hear a sound you really like, or feel something really soft, or taste something really good. You want to stop and just savor the feeling for a little longer.
4.) How do you remember what things look like?
Just like colors, we learn over time. How do you know how to read Braille, or type on a keyboard without being able to see the keys? How do you know what everything tastes like or feels like? It's like that. You just learn over time.
5.) You would choose to wear something that looks good, rather than something that's real comfortable?
As I said before, there's just certain color combinations and shapes that look pleasing to the eye. If you look good, people will want to be around you.
6.) What's it like to go somewhere all by yourself?
I don't know, you just sort of... you just do?
7.) What about driving?
Well, obviously not everyone can focus very well when driving, and there's lots of terrible drivers. You just have to tune everything else out and focus on the driving.
8.) What's it like to be able to get around in the snow?
Terrible. Cold. Wet. You try to step so that you won't fall in the snow, but you do anyway. 
9.) How do you miss something?
Well, sight's a funny thing. In the center of our vision, everything's really clear and focused, sort of like when someone's talking right by you and you can hear them perfectly. But towards the edge of our vision, it gets fuzzy, less accurate. We can only really see basic shapes and colors. Peripheral vision is mostly just to detect movement, you can't really do anything else with it. Sight is a lot more overwhelming than the other senses. There's absolutely no way that you can focus on every single thing you see all at once. I think it's most comparable to touch. You usually feel really well on your hands, since there's the most nerve endings there. But are you really paying attention to what your feet are feeling right now? To how it feels under your armpit? No, you're really not focusing on it. That's why pickpockets can get away with it, because when you're not focusing on a specific area of your body, you really don't seem to feel anything there. Ditto sight. If you space out, you stop paying attention to what you're seeing as much, and just get lost in your thoughts.
10.) How do you lose things when you can see?
We don't always see that we lost it. Obviously, as in the previous question, we may not notice. Or it may fall out of our back pocket, and since we can't see behind us, we won't realize it's gone. Also, we sometimes put something in a cupboard or drawer and forget which cupboard or drawer it was we put it in. We can't see through objects, it's only a surface thing. Like touch. If you feel a desk, you can't feel under the desk, you can only feel the desk. We have to remember which drawer we put it in first, so we can open it and subsequently find whatever we lost.
11.) How do you not find your car in a parking lot?
Parking lots are big. Cars are tall, and people are relatively short. We can't see over the cars to where our cars are. Also, as things get farther away, they get tinier and blurrier, harder to see.
12.) When you're driving, how do you miss the exit?
Well, you're focusing on driving, and it's easy to miss a sign.

HA, done. That's a half hour of my life I'll never get back.

[TheDizzie]

Not seeing things with sight is because just like you said there are so many things to see that essentially you cant see everything. A good way to explain it maybe is when you are hearing a crowd of people talking but are only trying to listen to one person talk. Its like that but with sight, you are trying to focus your sight and mind to a task so something right in your vision can go un-noticed.

[Libbymoonbeam]

1) We remember colours because to sighted people, it is like learning your ABC, once you learn it, you just remember it forever.

2) We remember what things look like by learning a certain aspect to remember, like a logo for a car or a shape of a vegetable. For people, we mostly remember their personality I guess, being able to see them is just a benefit that we can also remember.

3) To go somewhere by yourself is a different experience for all people. For some, being alone is a good time to relax and for others, being alone is the worst thing ever as there is no one to help you out. Driving, you just focus on the road and multitask I guess to listen to music and chat.

4) As someone who is constantly looking around, I normally miss things. For example, if my friend was to hand me something, I could be looking in the other direction, so my visual radius wouldn't catch what is in their hand (if that makes any sense whatsoever).

5) I lose things all the time, as again, I could be looking at my friend (not focusing on an item) and then it could fall out of my pocket or I could leave it on the table as I was busy looking at other things.

Don't know if you will ever come across this, but I hope it is helpful!

[trippydrew]

"What does it feel like to go somewhere by yourself"