What would it be like to have a "Spidey sense"? Or maybe you could have Daredevil's remarkable radar sense? Dr. Bradley Voytek, U.C. Berkeley neuroscientists, believes it wouldn't be far outside the bounds of normalcy, as human beings have potential super senses that they seldom spend time developing.

We need to work on them

Dr. Bradley Voytek is a U.C. Berkeley scientist who explained that human beings have not developed mega abilities they have always had access to. Voytek explains that the human mind has unimaginable powers. Our perceptions are facilitated by membranes that enable us to see and hear. The basic biology and cellular processes involved work apart from and in concert with our conscious awareness, yet the degree of sensitivity involved in perception is far from basic.

What Voytek believes

Where our abilities can go is much farther than we believe, Voytek explains. Human beings are able to see two photons in the retina. That is the lowest a human can see. As such, it would be possible, in theory, to see the flame of a candle from miles away, provided the right landscape and weather conditions.

It could also theoretically be possible that the range of human hearing - commonly from 20 Hz to 20,000 kHz - could focus down intensely enough to detect the vibrations brought on by Brownian motion, or the movement of atoms in particle theory.

As few as 30 molecules of something could be smelt by a human. That is another good thing.

The reason why 'super senses' aren't regularly used by humans

According to Voytek, the reason humans don't use their abilities more fully is because it requires too much attention. The amount of focus required is daunting for most people. Human beings are required to focus intensely on one sense, ignoring the others, when testing the physical limits. Super-human senses can be reached whenever you consciously ignore other abilities. Our brains are able to create 3-D images even better the more we focus on perception.

Blind people examples

The senses can become much better when you lose one or two abilities. Blind individuals are good examples for instance Terry Garrett and Ben Underwood. Teenage Underwood is able to perfectly navigate his surroundings - even on a skateboard or roller blades - via echolocation. His brain is able to work together to create a sonar sense with clicking, just like a bat or dolphin. Similarly, Underwood and Garrett can play video games depending on sound alone.

As scientists like Dr. Voytek continue to acquire their understanding of how the brain and our abilities work, we'll be that much closer to understanding how we can acquire the mega abilities that often lie dormant within.

Citations

CBS News

cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/19/earlyshow/main1817689.shtm

Oscillatory Thoughts
blog.ketyov.com/2011/05/we-are-all-inattentive-superheroes.htm

Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion

Wired
wired.com/gamelife/2011/04/blind-gamer-plays-zelda-by-ear/

Ben Underwood has overcome his blindness without surgery
youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCeosUmw