What it's like to go blind (2015)

I can also ride bikes. I have to know the area well of course, and be prepared for the inevitable accident, but I had a ton of fun doing it as a kid. Also climbing trees or participating in airsoft or laser tag matches.

I've also been able to drive a car. My family thought it would be cool to give me two practical driving lessons as a birthday present. So they called up a driving instructor and just asked. And it happened. Not on the street of course, but on a pretty big and open paved field that they generally use for their first motorcycle lessons.

I also travel. By myself. I have to do some prep work and I do have to ask for assistance a lot, but it's absolutely possible. Especially nowadays where we have phones that can do so much, from image recognition to GPS to video calls.

Naturally there are a lot of limitations. I can't just go out and explore a new place. Or if I have to travel somewhere for work and stay at a hotel I've never been at, getting around can be anxiety inducing and stressful. And of course I miss out on a lot of beautiful things. Like I can only imagine what nature looks like in all it's different forms. I can hear it, but I can't see it.

There's a lot more I could go into, but I just wanted to comment and give another little piece of anecdata. Of course, I imagine going blind later in life is a lot more terrifying than what I'm experiencing. Just like how I dread losing another one of my senses. I have no idea what I would do if I lost my hearing, even though I know there are deaf blind folks that do amazing things. We just do the best we can with what we have. And sometimes that turns out to be quite a lot of things.

Sigh.

Hail holy light, offspring of Heaven first-born,

Or of the Eternal Coeternal beam

May I express thee unblamed?

...but thou

Revisitest not these eyes, that roll in vain

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;

So thick a drop serene hath quenched their Orbs,

Or dim suffusion veiled.

...as the wakeful Bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal Note. Thus with the Year

Seasons return, but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of Even or Morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom, or Summer's Rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the Book of knowledge fair

Presented with a Universal blank

Of Nature's works to me expunged and razed,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

So much the rather thou Celestial light

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

Unlike ever before, the blind can now listen to a description of the world around them, with no other person required. The computer can just tell them what is around them.

I don't know if that's worth anything or would have too much hallucinated information, but it does seem worth exploring.

There is a great Ted talk and an okay book that was promoted by said talk - The Paradox of Choice, that heavily leaned into this idea. The more opportunities you have, the more you have opportunity loss. No choice is bad, but too many choices can also be bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw9FituzSXk

First time I’ve seen this

Interestingly enough the Quora account it sources from has been deleted.