TOW #14: Mixed Feelings by Sunny Bains (written, non-fiction text)

Animals have wider variety of senses that allows them to navigate, detect changes in electromagnetic field, or see ultraviolet light. Human generally have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. However, are we restricted to these five senses? According to Sunny Bains, a journalist and scientist who wrote about Udo Wachter and Paul Bach-y-Rita’s self repairing machines, the answer is no. Introducing a seemingly absurd topic of rearranging proprioception, human’s sixth sense that tells brain where and how the body is oriented, Bains successfully shifts the readers’ doubtful feelings into acclamation. Most notably, she uses hypophora to respond to the public’s general skepticism and the mechanisms behind self-repairing machines. When first introducing the concept of building another sense using the pre-existing five senses, she asks a series of questions: “Can our senses be modified? Expanded? Given the right prosthetics, could we feel electromagnetic fields or hear ultrasound? The answers to these questions… appear to be yes” (5). Bains answers her own series of questions that people generally consider impossible to evoke the audiences’ interest and curiosity on the topic. Bains utilizes hypophora again when discussing the new machine that uses a mouthpiece with weak electrical currents to garner different types of sensory information by asking, “So what kind of information could they pipe in?” (18). She answers her own question with the example of Mitch Tyler, who suffered with balance after having infected ears. The machine successfully restored Tyler’s balance and even worked after Tyler removed the mouth piece. Bains additionally establishes credibility of the machine by writing about her own experiences with the mouthpiece. Bains experienced a version of the mouthpiece made for divers to navigate them on which way to swim. With the use of  prototype, a joystick, and a computer screen depicting a rudimentary maze, Bains could navigate her way. “After a minute of bumping against the virtual walls, I asked Tyler to hide the maze window, closed my eyes, and successfully navigated two courses in 15 minutes. It was like I had something in my head magically telling me which way to go” (27). By including her own account, Bains makes the machine not only more believable but also appealing to the audience.

Article from: http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp_pr.html