Thursday, August 17, 2006

A Sense Of The Common

I was watching a show I usually don't watch last night: Medical Mysteries on ABC. I tend not to watch it because: a) I'm married to a doctor and it's no fun to guess cause she's always right and b) it's really a terrible show, to overly dramatic for my taste. As for a), case in point is to watch the show House with her. Apparently, that's not how doctors are supposed to talk to and treat patients and that there are some things on the show that you would "never do". I suppose I ruin shows for her too, so I'm cool with it.

Anyway, while stumbling across it last night I caught the tail end of a segment on something called "synesthesia" (I've linked to it on Wikipedia, and it explains it a little). In short, the "disorder" involves the cross-performance of certain parts of the brain, like those related to sense like sight and sound and taste. And it's something a lot of people have in some degree...of course some more than others, thus the reason for the special segment on Medical Mysteries.

The way it was explained on the show, it seemed to me this is just a glorified way of explaining common sense, or probably more accurately, intuition. For instance, I'm very good at trivia, in fact, I'm incredible at it. And it's not because I'm smart, though I am. I think it has a lot to do with intuition and being able to think spatially, or dimensionally, about questions. To see the question in all it's parts in all it's contexts from all it's angles through the lense of what I do know. Part process of elimination, part guessing, part knowledge.

Anyway, I think synesthesia explains common sense and how some people just get things quicker than others. It's because they're able, if you ask me, to see things through other senses and other ways instead of staring at a problem or task head-on. Remember, Medusa wasn't defeated in a staring contest.

The thing of it is: I know I ruin T.V. shows for the Mrs. But I can't think of any. Except for the news. The news is stupid.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't ruin tv for anyone, basically because I watch a lot of trash tv so it's already ruined. I purposely do this because the nature of my job constantly exposes me to "serious tv", ie; the news. I use television for the specific purpose in which it was created, that is to entertain. It is purely a temporary escape from the seriously depressing bs that I put up with 40 hrs a week and more. When I watch television, it's usually something on Comedy Central (no comic remix though). The most "serious" thing that I watch right now would be Great Hotels, and Passport To Europe on the Travel Channel. Admittedly I'm not sure if I watch because I like hearing about these particular things or if I'm just attracted to host Samantha Brown. They're good shows nonetheless.

I like to think that I am of average intelligence, but I still think I would've cleaned up on the recent World Series of Pop Culture.

Anonymous said...

I my self like dirty jobs. I find this most intersting. My next show might be grays but for the most part I like to watch anything. mrs. hee makes me watch the occassional chick flick but that only lasts for hour and a bit and life moves on and were all a bit better for it.