Are there examples of sensory hazards that apply to people who do not have a recognized medical problem?
But this is a different question. You have quietly redefined the question “are there harmful sensations to people?”—to which the answer is overwhelmingly, resoundingly, yes, there absolutely are—to ‘are there harmful sensations to a newly redefined subset of people which we will immediately update if anyone produces further examples, so actually what I meant all along was “are there harmful sensations which we don’t yet know about?”’
Or to put it more simply: ‘Can you provide an example of a harmful sensation we don’t yet know about?’ Well… If I could produce a harmful sensation, you and David would simply say something like ‘ah, well, I guess we now have a recognized medical problem, because look, we [commit suicide / collapse in convulsions / cease functioning / become obsessed with useless actions] if you expose us to X! That’s a pretty serious psychiatric problem! But, are there examples of sensory hazards that apply to people who do not have a recognized medical problem?’
I hear you and I’m not trying to play the definition game or wriggle out of this. The way I conceptualized the question—which I think the original poster had in mind and what I think is relevant to hazard risk assessment—is more like one of these:
A) “What fraction of the public is seriously vulnerable to sensory hazards”,
B) “Given that one knows one’s medical history and demographics, what is the probability that there are sensory hazards one is vulnerable to but not already well aware of.”
My hunch is that the answers are “less than 20%” and “close to zero.” The example of epilepsy didn’t shift my beliefs about either; epilepsy is rare and is rarely adult-onset for the non-elderly.
B) “Given that one knows one’s medical history and demographics, what is the probability that there are sensory hazards one is vulnerable to but not already well aware of.”
So you’re asking, what new medical sensory hazards may be developed in the future.
Well, the example of photosensitive epilepsy, where no trigger is mentioned which could have existed before the 19th century or so, suggests you should be very wary of thinking the risk of new sensory hazards is close to zero. Flash grenades are another visual example of a historically novel sensation which badly damages ordinary people. Infrasound is another plausible candidate for future deliberate or accidental weaponization. And so on...
epilepsy is rare and is rarely adult-onset for the non-elderly.
There, see, you’re doing it again! Why would you exclude the elderly? Keep in mind that you yourself should aspire to become elderly one day (after all, consider the most likely alternative...).
The photosensitive epilepsy and infrasound examples convinced me, thank you. I see that those are cases where a reasonably informed observer might be surprised by the vulnerability.
But this is a different question. You have quietly redefined the question “are there harmful sensations to people?”—to which the answer is overwhelmingly, resoundingly, yes, there absolutely are—to ‘are there harmful sensations to a newly redefined subset of people which we will immediately update if anyone produces further examples, so actually what I meant all along was “are there harmful sensations which we don’t yet know about?”’
Or to put it more simply: ‘Can you provide an example of a harmful sensation we don’t yet know about?’ Well… If I could produce a harmful sensation, you and David would simply say something like ‘ah, well, I guess we now have a recognized medical problem, because look, we [commit suicide / collapse in convulsions / cease functioning / become obsessed with useless actions] if you expose us to X! That’s a pretty serious psychiatric problem! But, are there examples of sensory hazards that apply to people who do not have a recognized medical problem?’
To which I can only shake my head no.
I hear you and I’m not trying to play the definition game or wriggle out of this. The way I conceptualized the question—which I think the original poster had in mind and what I think is relevant to hazard risk assessment—is more like one of these:
A) “What fraction of the public is seriously vulnerable to sensory hazards”,
B) “Given that one knows one’s medical history and demographics, what is the probability that there are sensory hazards one is vulnerable to but not already well aware of.”
My hunch is that the answers are “less than 20%” and “close to zero.” The example of epilepsy didn’t shift my beliefs about either; epilepsy is rare and is rarely adult-onset for the non-elderly.
So you’re asking, what new medical sensory hazards may be developed in the future.
Well, the example of photosensitive epilepsy, where no trigger is mentioned which could have existed before the 19th century or so, suggests you should be very wary of thinking the risk of new sensory hazards is close to zero. Flash grenades are another visual example of a historically novel sensation which badly damages ordinary people. Infrasound is another plausible candidate for future deliberate or accidental weaponization. And so on...
There, see, you’re doing it again! Why would you exclude the elderly? Keep in mind that you yourself should aspire to become elderly one day (after all, consider the most likely alternative...).
The photosensitive epilepsy and infrasound examples convinced me, thank you. I see that those are cases where a reasonably informed observer might be surprised by the vulnerability.