Would you rather lose sight or hearing? Why?

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Which would you rather LOSE?

Hearing (you will be deaf)
4
33%
Sight (you will be blind)
8
67%
 
Total votes: 12

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timcoalman
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Would you rather lose sight or hearing? Why?

Post by timcoalman » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:05 am

I'd read a recent article concerning choosing between the two, if the choice had to be made. I've been ill on the couch and so unable and unwilling to find the original article for reference and inclusion here, but curious about the Tape Op community.

The numbers skewed heavily towards the choice of loosing hearing, the general population (or at least that sampled for the article) explicitly valuing their sight over and above hearing. By wide margins.

Would a music community feel different? Does your position in music engineering, production, playing, et cetera change your answer?

I would miss seeing my boys grow, but the ability to talk with them is paramount. At eight years old and five years old I spend hours talking with them now. And not being able to listen to music is unthinkable, with no counterpart in sight.

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Marc Alan Goodman
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Re: Would you rather lose sight or hearing? Why?

Post by Marc Alan Goodman » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:26 am

timcoalman wrote: And not being able to listen to music is unthinkable, with no counterpart in sight.
Visual art? Film? Paintings? Photography? Sculpture? Pretty much all of the above?

I value my hearing greatly, but I have to imagine it would be easier to remain a part of society being deaf rather than blind. Not be able to talk to your boys? Communication is certainly more difficult for the deaf but far from impossible. Anyway, we're talking about fine lines here. Hang on to all your senses if you can keep them.

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timcoalman
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Post by timcoalman » Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:22 am

Visual art? Film? Paintings? Photography? Sculpture? Pretty much all of the above?
None close to music, for me.
but I have to imagine it would be easier to remain a part of society being deaf rather than blind.
If that is your overriding criteria and starting/ending point. I was looking more for discussion.
Communication is certainly more difficult for the deaf but far from impossible.


Obviously. For me the quality of the communication would immediately suffer until compensating through other means/techniques. But the nuance of spoken and heard communication between people, and music, music!

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ubertar
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Post by ubertar » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:51 pm

Which would I rather lose? I'd rather lose neither; unfortunately I've lost a fair bit of both.

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vvv
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Post by vvv » Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:17 pm

What? I don't see yer point ...

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Post by kslight » Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:22 pm

Lose sight. Be damn hard to play music without hearing.

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Post by dfuruta » Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:32 pm

I don't know, all those drummers seem to be doing fine

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Post by IDQ » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:56 pm

FWIW, I had a friend long ago who was a semi-pro performing musician and an avid recording guy, with a home studio and some part time work at a pro studio in Boulder.

He went hiking in the snow without sunglasses and experienced "snow bilindness" for about 48h. Even though he wasn't completely blind, he told me: "I always thought I would rather lose sight than hearing. 2 days with limited sight, and I can unequivocally say I've changed my mind."

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ubertar
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Post by ubertar » Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:30 am

kslight wrote:Lose sight. Be damn hard to play music without hearing.
That didn't stop Evelyn Glennie.

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Marc Alan Goodman
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Post by Marc Alan Goodman » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:29 am

dfuruta wrote:I don't know, all those drummers seem to be doing fine
Ding ding ding!
ubertar wrote:That didn't stop Evelyn Glennie.
It absolutely did not, she's amazing.

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Post by jhharvest » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:35 pm

I'd rather lose my hearing if I had to choose. There's two reasons: a) I don't have to work with sound, and b) artificial hearing is easier than artificial sight. I'd expect in fifteen-twenty years for complete loss of hearing to be curable. It's going to be another ten after that for vision.

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Post by chris harris » Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:22 pm

I'd rather strangle the super villain who was subjecting me to such an ultimatum, with my bare hands. I'd at least go down fighting.

....if I had to choose. ;)

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Post by James Anderson » Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:19 pm

i have a beautiful family and the world is a beautiful place - i'd like to watch those kids grow and seeing the Newfoundland landscape always blows my mind.

also, i like to think I have a stockpile of favourite sound memories to last me.

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Post by fossiltooth » Sun Mar 17, 2013 10:46 pm

I'm gonna have to go for losing sight, easy. I'm already used to seeing things all fuzzy much of the time, and I'm just not that visual of a person. Hearing and sounds and music and words are how I make sense of the world. That would suck to lose.

I figure in either case, you just gotta make do. I'd rather not have to choose. Whatever happens happens. Hopefully, neither does.

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:25 am

fossiltooth wrote:I'm gonna have to go for losing sight, easy. I'm already used to seeing things all fuzzy much of the time
dude get a new prescription already! it helps. trust me!

but yeah, my vision will never be all that, i don't really have depth perception...but my ears work great, so i'm gonna opt to keep the things that work and lose the things that are doing a half-ass job already.

a brief anecdote about ears vs eyes:

back in college i'd be sitting around in my room listening to tunes and getting stoned with whoever was around. invariably some tune would really capture my interest and i'd start listening to it intently.

this intense listening was of course accompanied by a blank stare. if you've seen the wilco movie, there's a shot of jay bennett listening to a playback while his cigarette ash dangles precariously....i looked like that.

it turns out this sort of focused listening makes people Very Uncomfortable. people would say "uh....dude?.....what are you looking at?" in a nervous voice. i'd always be like "oh...sorry! i wasn't using my eyes..."

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