09: The five senses

The five senses are human beings’ interface to the world surrounding them. Without them, we could not in any way experience or conceive it. The senses have been developed by evolution through an adaptive, self-organizing process; a classical example for an emergent phenomenon. Human beings have always tried to expand their senses, in order to make ‘sense’ of creation, among other reasons. Thus, any (falsifiable) scientific field is based on experiments, which are nothing else than highly expanded senses in part. At the moment we find ourselves at a threshold: not only do we expand the senses by technical devices but we also try to enhance and replace them directly on human beings. The senses in their special shapes are an elementary part of all interactions between humans and form the core of understanding in human societies. In this working group we will dwell on the topic ‘five senses’ with regard to the above-mentioned aspects engaging five experts in their fields. In connection with the visual sense we will see how senses can be restored in humans directly. The sense of hearing will lead us to communication and we will elaborate consequences for societal interactions. The topic of smelling will deal with the fascinating opportunities for finding new technological applications; and in connection with the sense of touch we will learn about the interaction of senses and its imaging in the brain. Finally, we will hear about the sense of taste by ‘molecular gastronomist’. Through various statements we will try on the one hand to cover secondary phenomena of senses like e.g. aesthetics, and on the other we will try to answer the question what information – as the basic input for all our senses – is about after all.