Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Eleven Senses


When I taught in a more traditional classroom setting, I had a mantra that I recited at the beginning of every class:  Be Your Own Expert.  I wanted students to question received wisdom, to consider the evidence for themselves whenever possible.  Every day I told a different story of an “expert” that was later shown to be laughably wrong.  It was fun. 

My favorite example of “conventional ignorance” masquerading as wisdom is the phrase “the five senses.”  People use this expression without ever thinking about it.  Once I found a picture book for toddlers called “Your Five Senses.”  Indoctrination starts early.  I didn’t question it myself until a friend and mentor said something to me about the “other senses.”  It got me thinking: “Are there other senses?  What might they be?” In very short order I came up with three or four obvious ones, counting ten or eleven within a few days.  You can, too.  

Go ahead. Bookmark this for a day or two and see how many senses you can come up with. But wait!  Read my definition of a sense first: A human sense is a means by which a human mind obtains a unique quality of information about the physical universe.  (Not the spiritual, social, or emotional universes, about which humans will reasonably disagree.) Just the physical universe.  

OK, here’s your chance to be your own expert. If you keep reading, you’ll kick yourself, because the first few are easy. You may disagree with me about some of them, but verified scientific evidence is on my side. We humans receive at least ten very specific and unique qualities of information about the physical universe.  

1 through 5: Hearing, Taste, Touch, Smell, Sight.  Some fascinating recent research is revealing amazing insights about these old familiars.  For example, there are sensors behind the retina that detect light, but instead of sending the signal to the visual cortex, they are linked to the part of the brain that determines the wake/sleep cycle. 

6 - Balance.  This sense tells us our orientation to gravity.  Balance involves a separate organ, located near each ear (but unrelated to hearing). The three semi-circular canals of the vestibular system run in each of the three dimensions, so we can know our gravitational orientation in three dimensions. Damage to either vestibule causes debilitating vertigo.  

7- Temperature. This is NOT the sense of touch, which tells us about pressure and texture. Temperature is a separate quality of information from pressure/texture, and there are separate receptors in the skin for temperature, called thermo-receptors.  Actually there are two, one for warmth and a different kind for cold, so arguably this is two separate senses. Heat radiation can be sensed by our skin in the absence of anything to “touch,” eg. in vacuum.   

8- Time.  While the accuracy of this sense varies greatly (as does smell), most of us will notice if our favorite song is played too fast. . . if I leave the room to use the restroom and come back 2 seconds later, no one would need to consult a clock to know I hadn't been gone long enough. There is clearly a human ability to sense the passage of various quantities of time. Neurologists have not yet described the structure for this function, and it looks as though the “sensor” may be a distributed network of neurons in the brain.  Rats can “tell time” even if their entire cortex is removed. Stay tuned. 

9- Proprioception, or the kinesthetic sense.  Close your eyes and ask yourself where is your left thumb, or your right elbow. No peeking! You'll know, to within an inch or two. You have a 3D map in your head showing the location of each part of your body, no peeking needed. The information comes from cells called proprioceptors (stretch receptors) in all the voluntary muscles of the body. They tell you how stretched or contracted each muscle is, which your brain uses to determine at what angle each joint is held.  

10- Interoception, or the body sense.  This one provides unique information concerning the geography of your body parts. When you have a headache, you know that the pain is in your head, not your abdomen. When someone touches your shoulder, you know it's your shoulder. This may be related to the geography of nerve endings in the brain, but that's true of every sense.  

11-Direction.  I accept that this sense is marginal, in that it may be only a combination of balance, time, and/or kinesthetic senses.  However, there is some evidence that certain aboriginal peoples have a highly developed sense of direction, that is not eliminated by restricting the other senses.  I'm not prepared to say that aboriginal people are other than human, so the sense remains on my list, though tentatively.   

For the past fourteen years I have been SO proud of myself for thinking of these on my own.  Then along comes Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense).  Turns out they list even more senses than I do, except they count pain as a separate sense (nociception), along with some fascinating others.   

So how many senses do we have?  Somewhere between eleven and seventeen. Yet another* example of how we mistake conventional wisdom for actual wisdom. 


Be Your Own Expert!

Friday, June 7, 2019

Ending Abortion for Real

I have a simple 3-step proposal that would virtually end abortion in the U.S. Keep reading:

Step 1: Make all forms of contraception and related medical services free and easily available to everyone over the age of 12. 

Step 2: Make it a crime to have penis-vagina contact without at least two methods of contraception OR a written statement from both parties documenting a mutual desire to conceive a child, dated and witnessed BEFORE the sex. 

Step 2b (optional addition): Require by law that every single act of penis-vagina contact be preceded by a signed written statement from each partner, handed to the other partner: 
“I hereby consent to penis-vagina contact with [partner] on [date] and; It [is / is not] my intention to conceive a child (circle one).”
Having intercourse without the signatures of both parties would be a crime even if no child is conceived and both parties consented verbally to the intercourse. The law would require the written statements themselves, regardless of the outcomes of the sex.

Step 3: Allow free and unfettered access to abortion, but define it as murder under the law and hold the baby’s father solely responsible for all criminal charges. If the mother chooses abortion, the father goes to jail for, say, nine months. Or nine years, whatever. No additional consequences for mothers (beyond the emotional and physical trauma of the abortion), and no consequences for abortionists. [The doctor is not responsible for the unplanned pregnancy!]

Step 1 would put Planned Parenthood out of business because the government would essentially take over and expand their mission. Steps 2a and 2b would outlaw unplanned pregnancy, and hugely reduce the demand for abortions. Step 2b would have the happy side effect of eliminating sexual assault with penetration, or at least make it very easy to prosecute. Step 3 gives Pro-Lifers their long-sought murder definition, but puts the responsibility where it belongs: on those who care more about 'raincoats in the shower' than the lives of unborn babies. 

Now, before you rip me a new one in the comments, I know that there are many issues with this proposal. I also know that many of you are happy with Roe v. Wade just as it is. The point is not to adopt my proposal; the point is that we keep asking the wrong questions. 

The legality of abortion is all about effects when the debate should be about causes. It’s like arguing about whether starving children should be buried or cremated, instead of debating how to NOT HAVE starving children! 

This proposal is my attempt at answering these: “Why are there still unwanted pregnancies in the year 2019?” and “How can we prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place?” 


Look, we are facing the very real possibility of losing Roe v. Wade, and the inevitable government intrusion into our most private lives that would follow. Against that backdrop, the intrusive laws in my proposal look a lot less draconian, don’t you think? Put your thoughts in the comments. 

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Three Poems

I am trying to improve my poetry skills. If you take time to read these, please please please comment with feedback. Which of the three speaks to you most? Which least? Are they any good, really? Let me know...

Transition JD Stillwater, 2019 

Our fathers’ science 
reduces my selfhood to widgets
a model, a machine, 
idly ticking clockwork,
pointless.

Our fathers’ religion
renders my body a shadow
a slut-shamed sleaze
a clay model, a precursor,
discounted. 

Our daughters’ science 
consecrates wholeness
First Light made mortal meat,
cosmic wind incarnate, 
alive. 

Our daughters’ religion
marries meat and mind,
a sweaty pungent monument
a galaxy, a destination, 

a symphony. 





Cloudy With a Chance of Hell JD Stillwater, 2019

I just want to watch movies. 
Or browse YouTube. 

Something wrong with that?

I don’t want to walk to work, 
or ride my bike with a daypack. 

Gas is cheap now!

I want to lie on the floor, and relax
with a cuddly friend, maybe. 

I want a handbag with sequins that flip.

I want to be safe. 

I could use a new phone, one with 
a bigger screen and more colors.

Plan ahead? Why?
fares are cheap now  

Did you see that new thing? I
ordered one; it’ll be here tomorrow. 

I just want to be warm.

Why bother hanging them?
this new dryer is high-efficiency.

I don’t want to be good; I need
to de-stress and be fully present. 

I tried to be good once, to recycle, to 
do my part, to “save the world.”

Besides, nothing I do will make
any difference whatsoever. 

I want to fiddle while Rome burns, 

and picnic on the railroad tracks. 


This Body JD Stillwater, 2019

This body–
sweaty, stinky, earthy
bones, blood, breath
flabby, wrinkled, furtive
–is no mere shadow.

This body–
that shits and sings and
breathes and heaves and
mumbles and fumbles and
obsesses and professes and
over-eats and over-thinks and
flares and cares and shares and fails
–is no glove for a ghost. 

This body–
of clay and water
smoke and sunlight
salt and germs and meat
–is no fine-tuned apparatus. 

This body–
of sticky hairy 
smells-like-fishy
lusty rusty bloody
slimy grimy snotty
oozing squirting farting
fecund fungus jungle 
pond scum arising to carnal flesh
–is no fallen depravity.

This body–
racing full-tilt after the 
flying football the 
almighty dollar the
gorgeous glamorous girl the
chance at glory or 
at least notoriety or
some whispered remembrance 
–is no clicking whirring clockwork. 

This body–
fertile no longer
but once, wonderfully
(cosmically, even)
still so vibrantly alive 
even as I walk
through the valley of the shadow of 
despair 
–is all I truly know. 

This body–
its own magic recipe
blueprint for itself
 like a seed
 like a spore
gathered ingredients
constructed from 
scrapings, pilferings
e unum pluribus
e pluribus unum
–is magic

This body–
the one you pronounce
so confidently 
to be mere
shadow on a cave wall, mere
predictable machine, mere
clothing for a ghost, mere
precursor to heavenly bliss
or eternal torment below,
–this body is real.

This body is mine.