(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Nonfiction Views: Ashley Ward's new book on the senses, and the week's notable new nonfiction [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-10 The alarming spread of artificial intelligence into book publishing, the arts, social media and politics has been discussed several times in recent weeks. It was at least a tiny bit gratifying to read this fact in Ashley Ward’s recently published Where We Meet the World: The Story of the Senses: Yet for all the extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence, it’s spectacularly difficult to develop a robotic hand that can smoothly pick up a cup of tea without spilling it, crack an egg, or secure a morsel of food using chopsticks—things that humans do without thinking. It seems that to make a human emulation, you have to be able to break a few eggs, and AI is still struggling. This tidbit comes from the chapter on touch in this fascinating tour of the human senses. Our skin is an amazing organ, creating our tactile sensations along with keeping our fluids in and keeping pathogens out. The average body is covered with about 20 square feet of skin, which makes up one-sixth of our body weight. Our sense of touch comes primarily from four different cellular receptors.The Merkel cells, just below the surface all over the body, but concentrated in the fingers, provide a continuous flow of information on everything we touch, allowing us to feel the slightest indentations in a surface, and an instantaneous awareness of differences as we move our fingers along. Meissner corpuscles, on the other hand, are in charge of detecting things that touch us. Unlike the continuous instantaneous communication with the brain of Merkel cells, the Meissner corpuscles only alert us to changes. This is why we aren’t constantly focused of the chair we’re sitting in or the clothes we’re wearing. The Pacinian corpuscles are more attuned to deeper pressure, interpreting the things we touch as vibrations to reveaal their texture. Finally, the Ruffini endings sense how our skin is stretching in every moment, which relates to our posture, our spatial body awareness, and to our ability to reach for an egg and close our fingers around it. Our human bodies are extremely attuned to touch, and being deprived of it can harm our development and our health. Our skin responds intensely to movement against it, as in caresses or pats on the back, In fact, studies have revealed the sweet spot for our bodies responding to being touched: a stroke of 3-5 centimeters per second is the most relaxing. It doesn’t even matter whether the sensation is coming from the hand of a loved one or, ummm, from a robotic arm. Grrrr. Keep your tea-spilling hands off me, AI! Each of the senses is given fascinating treatment. A few of the things revealed: At the center of our retina is the fovea, at which our sharpest visual acuity is found. At a distance of six feet or so, the fovea only brings an area of about an inch-and-a-half into clear focus. When we are talking with someone, our eyes make dozens of infinitesimal movements every second, which our brain instantaneously knits together into a seamless picture of the person’s full face. Our ears and sense of hearing are amazing, but there are marvels throughout the living kingdom. Evening primroses can detect the buzz of bees, and when they do, they sweeten their nectar to attract the pollinators. Rock cress plants can sense the sound of caterpillars chewing, and then synthesize chemicals to make their leaves more bitter. Other buzzing insects do not make the primroses react, and other sounds do not alarm the rock cresses. Of course, these plants are lacking in ears and other auditory mechanisms; what they are sensing and reacting to are vibrations. But that is what sound is: vibrations. And so, the ability of plants to react to specific vibrations seems very akin to hearing. The song of the blue whale is objectively many times louder than a jet engine. However, it happens outside the range of frequencies that the human ear can detect, so we don’t hear it. Our senses influence each other, and also subconsciously affect our thoughts. Studies have shown that people make harsher judgments when discussing a subject if there is a bad smell introduced to the room. People say that a strawberry smoothie tastes less sweet if it is dyed green, even when it is identical to a red one. In all, a fascinating book, and yet another subject that fills me with wonder at the complexity of existence. It covers human history and natural history, with a good measure of philosophizing as well as humor. Over at The Literate Lizard this week, in addition to our usual selection of 20% discounted new releases, I have two themed book lists also discounted 20%, with choices for adults and kids: Hispanic Heritage Month, and Indigenous Peoples Day. Both discounts continue through October 15th. And of course, your DAILYKOS coupon code can always get you 15% off. And here is the link to my list in today’s Black Kos diary of this week’s books of particular interest to Black and Latino/a readers. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/10/2198405/-Nonfiction-Views-Ashley-Ward-s-new-book-on-the-senses-and-the-week-s-notable-new-nonfiction?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/