Re: Identify story request: weird alien sense organs


thebigbungle wrote:
I have a rather vague recollection of the following SF short story that

I read when I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s (although the story
itself may have
been from somewhat earlier). There's a race of aliens with very
different sense organs from ours. A human makes a kind of Faustian
bargin whereby he can experience what it is like to have these sense
organs for a short period of time and then he will never be able to
experience it again. He goes to a 'concert' to hear/see/sense an
artwork in the alien sensory medium and is gobsmacked by it, to the
extent that I think he regrets having experienced it once and never
being able to again. I'm a philosophy teacher now and I remember it
stimulating me to think about the difference between an objective
description of a sensory medium (he can't understand why the aliens are

so excited by their medium when it 'just' enables them to detect the
difference between certain chemicals or whatever; but they are
similarly nonplussed about human color perception: it also 'just'
enables humans to detect certain chemical differences) and its
subjective aspect (the actual experience of color / the alien sensory
medium). Does anyone have any idea what story I might be talking about?
I want
to see if it would make a good piece to set for an intro to philosophy
class, so any
other recommendations for stories on a similar theme would also be
welcome.


Many thanks


thebigbungle

I belive that otehr posters are correct in this being "The Secret
Sense" by Asimov. On simialr stories, there have been several about
synesthisia, but "In the house of Double Minds" (cant recall author
off-hand) is about the subjecteve experience of lobotomy patiens -- for
whom it is expoected to be a positive thing.

Asimov's "Dreaming is A Private thing" might also be relevant.

_Don L.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Identify story request: weird alien sense organs
    ... description of a sensory medium (he can't understand why the aliens are ... similarly nonplussed about human color perception: ... subjective aspect (the actual experience of color / the alien sensory ... It's an Asimov story, but I don't remember the title.... ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)
  • Identify story request: weird alien sense organs
    ... description of a sensory medium (he can't understand why the aliens are ... similarly nonplussed about human color perception: ... enables humans to detect certain chemical differences) and its ... subjective aspect (the actual experience of color / the alien sensory ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)