Hatrack River Forum: Was Blind but Now Can See

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :

This morning on Morning Edition I heard an interview with a 49 year old man, Michael May, whose vision had just been restored after having been blinded 46 years ago (for more information about how this was accomplished, see this Scientific American article on the same story.

I found the interview to be incredibly frustrating. The interviewer kept failing to ask May the questions that I wanted to hear him address. I wish that Terry Gross would do a Fresh Air interview with him.

Most of the interview involved May talking about the difficulties he was having learning to process visual input (this was fascinating to me; the frustrating part was that the interviewer didn't dig deeply enough--for my satisfaction, anyway--into this . Toward the end of the interview, May mentioned that one thing that he really liked doing now that he could see was sitting at outdoor cafes watching attractive women walk by.

Now, it strikes me that May would be in unique position of having never been subjected to our society's beauty ideals. I mean, he may have learned to find thin women sexier, to the touch, than heavier women, but 99% of the way society imprints its ideas about beauty is through visual imagery, right? So, what did this guy find attractive? What did he find unattractive? I would love to have heard about this, and when the interview ended right after the guy said this, I couldn't believe it. How could this not have been an interesting enough question to have been asked, and to have been included in the broadcast?

I'd like to email the guy and ask. I wonder if I could find his email address?

Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :

You think he can read?

Posted by Pod (Member # 941) on :

if this is first sight in his life no.

His visual cortex hasn't developed as a normal person's would have, and thus not only will he be unable to visually read, but he will have terrible difficulty figuring out where one object ends and the next begins.

Posted by Pod (Member # 941) on :

from a quick glance at the article, i doubt his brain ever had a chance to develop so he could read. He might might be okay in terms of object segmentation, since he had a couple years of sight. He might be alright. dunno.

Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :

In the interview I heard with him this morning he said that over the course of the last three years, his time for figuring out if a person walking by was male or female dropped from 10 seconds to 2 seconds. He can see colors and movement, but still has lots of difficulty with fine details, like his kid's face. The fact that he likes to watch "attractive women walk by" is rather disturbing if you ask me, since he only get gender right 70% of the time. [Wink]

Posted by Geoffrey Card (Member # 1062) on :

Well, he only gets gender right from FACES 70% of the time. I think a woman WALKING BY would give a few more clues ...

Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :

Ha! You'd think, but even being able to see, I can't figure it out all the time. And this guy has one bad eye! And that's not even taking into account the crying game people! [Big Grin]

[ August 26, 2003, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Kayla ]