by Chris Kuell
Photo included: Caption: Chris Kuell
From the Editor: This article first appeared in the BRAILLE MONITOR,
January/February 2002 Edition, published by the National Federation of the Blind.
Reprinted with permission.
From the MONITOR Editor: Chris Kuell is a blind freelance writer from
Danbury, Connecticut; First Vice President of the NFB of Connecticut; and Director
of Legislative Affairs for the affiliate. Although he has a Ph.D. in Chemistry,
he now writes articles dealing with blindness—accessibility issues, Braille
literacy, and positive attitudes—as well as other nonfiction articles and
short stories. He is married; has two children; and enjoys spending time gardening,
working on the house, playing with his kids, and experiencing the great outdoors.
"We do not understand what this means—to `see.'"
"Well, it's what, what things look like," Meg said helplessly.
We do not know what things look like, as you say," the beast said. "We
know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing."
"Oh no," Meg cried. "It's the most wonderful thing in the world."
"What a very strange place your world must be," the beast said. "That
such a peculiar-seeming thing should be of such importance."
From A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle
As we closed one millennium and opened the next, the media reminded us exhaustively
of the many medical and technological advances made by humankind in the last
100 years. This progressive wave of knowledge and achievement is so impressive
that we could spend the next hundred years debating which inventions were the
most important. But what really fascinates me is the manner in which knowledge
is expanded, being built up from a foundation of basic understanding, one brick
at a time, individual advancements contributing mortar and stone to discoveries
that alter the structure of our lives.
Prior to the last 150 years or so, human beings relied on our senses to examine,
investigate, study, analyze, and understand the world around us. By using sight,
sound, taste, smell, feel, and movement, people developed a crude picture of
the inner mechanisms that govern life processes. When certain phenomena could
not be explained by the science of the times, they would be understood through
witchcraft, superstition, and hauntings from the spirit world. Our former need
to turn to the supernatural to explain basic natural phenomena illustrates the
limitations of our biological detectors.
In order to draw a better picture of nature, we have had to move beyond the
power of the senses to acquire knowledge about the physics, chemistry, and biology
that make our world work as it does. Thus scientists have spent the last century
developing highly refined instruments so that we might better scrutinize our
cosmos. The progressive wave of the twentieth century swept in antibiotics and
antiviral agents, revolutionary transportation, satellites, computers, the Internet,
microwave ovens, and digital technology. Each and every milestone in discovery
and technology was presaged by incremental scientific advancements. The invention
of better, more precise instruments allowed us to develop new theories about
our Earth and its inhabitants. Gaining new knowledge and theories made humankind
yearn for even deeper understanding, and we built still better and more sophisticated
devices. Technologies such as the electron microscope, the mass spectrometer,
the gas chromatograph, the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, and computerized
telescopes have allowed us to see things from the sub-units of our universe
to objects far beyond our galaxy. Modern instrumentation allows human beings
to transcend our senses, transforming data into information that can be used
by our minds first and our senses later.
For example, mathematicians have developed an equation that describes the sound
of rain as it falls on the ocean's surface. Using sophisticated microphones
60 feet underwater, Dr. Jeffrey Nystuen, a University of Washington oceanographer
and research team member for NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, collects
acoustical data resulting from the sound of the drops hitting the surface and
the bubbles being formed underneath. With these data he can deduce the size
of the raindrops, the amount of rainfall, and ultimately the progress of climate
change.
Cancer research and treatment have been forever altered by the use of magnetic
resonance imaging technology (MRI). An MRI machine uses a nuclear magnetic resonance
spectrometer to produce electronic images of specific atoms and molecular structures
in solids, especially human cells, tissues, and organs. MRIs are so precise
that they can be used to find the tiniest of clusters of cancer cells deep inside
a patient's brain. However, it should be noted that the doctor does not see
the cancer. Rather the doctor interprets a three-dimensional graphical representation
of what the human eye could never see in a live patient.
Is anyone in the modern era unfamiliar with Doppler radar? Every local weather
station uses this powerful tool to see the weather patterns. How many homes
now boast a carbon monoxide detector? Our senses prevent us from detecting this
silent, deadly gas, but our technology frees us to learn of its presence.
We live in an era in which our understanding of the world is not limited to
our biological connections to that world. Instrumentation and technology that
greatly surpass our human senses are commonplace today. Yet the most specialized
instrument and the data it records are rendered meaningless in the absence of
the most important sense of all—common sense. Our brains and our ability
to think logically are the only mandatory link to all the progress humankind
has made in the past hundred years. Anyone can see more deeply into the nature
of life by putting his or her brain to work; eyesight is not necessary.
Like the beast in L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME, I, too, wonder why we
put such importance on sight and the other senses. After all, appearances can
be very deceptive. It is far more important to understand what things are like
than what things look like.