Sensory Perceptions

¶ … Fallibility of Reliance Upon Sensory Data Accounting Author's institution affiliation The Necessity & Fallibility of Reliance upon Sensory Data Without sensory data, most humans would likely die after very short lives. Sensory data on a very basic level allows beings to navigate and interact with their environments and world. Without sensory information, the simplest tasks could not be accomplished and it would be exceptionally difficult to maintain general safety. Without sensory data, society would not be able to exist as such.

How could any tasks be executed? How would anyone know which tasks needed to be executed? How would people calculate their priorities? While sensory data is quite necessary for people to see, touch, smell, hear, and feel, reliance upon sensory data alone can also be dangerous as there are often a multitude of factors that contribute to a circumstance, event, or occurrence, that many people, including the participants and those otherwise directly or indirectly affected by the event, of which they are unaware.

Therefore, it behooves people to attempt to gather as much information about an event as possible factoring in their sensory data regarding the matter, but not solely relying on their sensory data as the primary source of information about that event. Besides the fact that there are factors that people are unaware of outside of their sensory data that contribute to an occurrence, individual sensory data as well as collective sensory data can be wrong and wholly inaccurate.

In legal proceedings and criminal investigations, officers of the law and the court often rely more upon forensic evidence rather than witness testimony, though witness testimony is valuable and admissible in court, because witnesses remember inaccurately. Memory is an inaccurate tool of measurement that changes with time. Other fallibilities with sensory data include poor or imperfect eyesight and hearing, diminishment of stimulus response due to nerve damage, or even something as simple as the sense of smell affected or diminished as a result of a common cold or flu.

Sensory data can be improved with prescription glasses or Lasik eye surgery. Hearing can be improving with surgery and devices such as cochlear implants or other forms of hearing aids. Some nerve damage can be restored as well. There are external devices and forms of technologies that improve existing sensory data output as well as some technology that replaces the receptors for sensory data. To reiterate, people must rely upon their sensory data for everyday functioning.

The sensory information from the eyes tells the person that it is morning and it is time to commence the day's activities. The sensory information from the nose tells the person it is time to turn off heat on the stove under the food so as not to burn it and consume the food for energy. The sensory data from the ears tells the person the phone is ringing presently. Reliance upon such data is necessary for the person to get through the day.

Some problems of perception refer to illusions, hallucinations, and dreams. (TSEP, 2011) All of these occurrences can be a result of an imbalance or state of change within the human mind. To the mind, during such states, the sensory data provided is distorted though perceived as real and accurate by the person. The question of what is real presents a problem for perception and sensory data as well.

There are many people around the world who believe in things such as God, faith, hope, and many other concepts across many topics, which do not directly or quantitatively correspond to sensory data. People do not necessarily see God to perceive that their God exists. Feelings are a form of sensory data, which can prove valuable such as intuition during a dangerous situation, and can prove wrong as when falsely accusing a partner of infidelity. There has to be a balance between reliance.