The 5 Senses
ROMERO: They only had 5 senses?
SONJA: No, they had many more, but they mostly discussed 5 of them. Vision, olfaction, gustation, somatosensation and audition. They called them sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, respectively.
ROMERO: Wait! That means they couldn't even play Quantic Wrangle Ball! Not without transdimensional magnetoreception anyway...
SONJA: They might not have been able to play Quantic Wrangle Ball, but they still managed to put their senses to good use. What's even more surprising is that they used organic organs to sense things around them.
ROMERO: WHAT?
SONJA: Ha ha ha! I knew that would surprise you! Humans used their own, organic flesh to sense things.
ROMERO: Well what did those organs look like? Were they internal or external?
SONJA: It's a little bit of both honestly, but they had a few very distinctive physical features to help them use their senses. My favorite is easily the hand.
ROMERO: What's a hand?
SONJA: The hand is a prehensile, five fingered limb that is attached to the forearm of the human. One finger, the thumb, was particularly important to humanity's early development, but that's a story for another day.
ROMERO: What about olfaction? Do they also have a limb for that?
SONJA: Not a limb, but a multi-purpose air canal, the nose. It lies in the center of the face.
ROMERO: Seems like that could make the nose an easy target in combat...
SONJA: Oh yes, absolutely, although they quickly developed armor and protection for their vulnerable parts.
ROMERO: Right, that makes sense. What about their vision organ?
SONJA: Organs, not organ.
ROMERO: They have more than one?
SONJA: Yes, they have two. They are called "eyes". This gives them the ability to see depth.
ROMERO: Wow! Just like Sentient Life Form 6761, the Yok!
SONJA: That's right. In fact, the Yok share another sensing organ with the humans, the tongue.
ROMERO: Is that the auditory organ?
SONJA: No, that's the ears, two resonance chambers placed on the sides of the skull that allow humans to process sounds between the frequencies of 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
ROMERO: That must mean the tongue is the gustatory organ then.
SONJA: Correct. But the human tongue is wildly different than anything we've seen before. While it serves as a gustatory sensor, like the Yok, it's also a multi-purpose tool.
ROMERO: That's disgusting.
SONJA: Perhaps, but that doesn't make it less useful. In addition to tasting, the human tongue is also used for mastication of food, their main source of nutrients, and for speech, humanity's primary communication method. Until they invented the internet that is, but I digress.
ROMERO: I think I've lost my appetite...
SONJA: It gets worse.
ROMERO: ....
SONJA: They use the tongue as a display of intimacy. Humans that feel intimate with each other will sometimes rub their tongues against each other's, which provides a sensation of pleasure and comfort for most people.
ROMERO: I think I'm going to be sick.
SONJA: Then I probably shouldn't mention that tongues are also used extensively during mating, to stimulate the partner's sexual organs.
ROMERO: PROFESSOR, PLEASE!
SONJA: Yes, of course, sorry Romero. Maybe we'll learn more about human mating rituals when you're a bit older.
SONJA: No, they had many more, but they mostly discussed 5 of them. Vision, olfaction, gustation, somatosensation and audition. They called them sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing, respectively.
ROMERO: Wait! That means they couldn't even play Quantic Wrangle Ball! Not without transdimensional magnetoreception anyway...
SONJA: They might not have been able to play Quantic Wrangle Ball, but they still managed to put their senses to good use. What's even more surprising is that they used organic organs to sense things around them.
ROMERO: WHAT?
SONJA: Ha ha ha! I knew that would surprise you! Humans used their own, organic flesh to sense things.
ROMERO: Well what did those organs look like? Were they internal or external?
SONJA: It's a little bit of both honestly, but they had a few very distinctive physical features to help them use their senses. My favorite is easily the hand.
ROMERO: What's a hand?
SONJA: The hand is a prehensile, five fingered limb that is attached to the forearm of the human. One finger, the thumb, was particularly important to humanity's early development, but that's a story for another day.
ROMERO: What about olfaction? Do they also have a limb for that?
SONJA: Not a limb, but a multi-purpose air canal, the nose. It lies in the center of the face.
ROMERO: Seems like that could make the nose an easy target in combat...
SONJA: Oh yes, absolutely, although they quickly developed armor and protection for their vulnerable parts.
ROMERO: Right, that makes sense. What about their vision organ?
SONJA: Organs, not organ.
ROMERO: They have more than one?
SONJA: Yes, they have two. They are called "eyes". This gives them the ability to see depth.
ROMERO: Wow! Just like Sentient Life Form 6761, the Yok!
SONJA: That's right. In fact, the Yok share another sensing organ with the humans, the tongue.
ROMERO: Is that the auditory organ?
SONJA: No, that's the ears, two resonance chambers placed on the sides of the skull that allow humans to process sounds between the frequencies of 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
ROMERO: That must mean the tongue is the gustatory organ then.
SONJA: Correct. But the human tongue is wildly different than anything we've seen before. While it serves as a gustatory sensor, like the Yok, it's also a multi-purpose tool.
ROMERO: That's disgusting.
SONJA: Perhaps, but that doesn't make it less useful. In addition to tasting, the human tongue is also used for mastication of food, their main source of nutrients, and for speech, humanity's primary communication method. Until they invented the internet that is, but I digress.
ROMERO: I think I've lost my appetite...
SONJA: It gets worse.
ROMERO: ....
SONJA: They use the tongue as a display of intimacy. Humans that feel intimate with each other will sometimes rub their tongues against each other's, which provides a sensation of pleasure and comfort for most people.
ROMERO: I think I'm going to be sick.
SONJA: Then I probably shouldn't mention that tongues are also used extensively during mating, to stimulate the partner's sexual organs.
ROMERO: PROFESSOR, PLEASE!
SONJA: Yes, of course, sorry Romero. Maybe we'll learn more about human mating rituals when you're a bit older.
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