Seeing Scents

Sometimes I wonder about the strangest stuff.  This time I'm going to wonder about what we see.  Or could possibly see.

Take our olfactory senses for example.

Isn't it funny how our sense of smell works?  There must be billions of different smells that our brain interprets, but we can't see the interesting scents, uncomfortable odors, delicious smells, or sensual fragrances.  We know that they exist though because we can smell them.  Wait... What?  What are we actually smelling?

Imagine if we actually could see smells.  What would they look like?  I have thought about that several times over the years.  My perception is as if every scent had its own hue.  Like we existed in a swirling, kaleidoscopic, multicolored overdose of flowing color.  No wait--not swirling... more like flowing.  Kind of like the picture on the right (click it for a full-sized overdose).  Imagine... You look over at the food cooking on the stove and see hues of various colors emanating from the pots there.  Maybe the smell of asparagus has a dark, earthy tone.  Maybe the kettle of homemade soup has a multitude of colors leaking out from beneath the lid, each showing a hint of the ingredients within.  Maybe there is a light blue wafting from the oven where a pie is baking.

Imagine being able to spot a bad smell before it presented a danger to your nose!  You might see the noxious cloud of yellows and reds that suddenly began spewing forth from that train car parked along that siding near the highway.  No danger of being surprised by something that would make you sick if you breathed its vapors.  Nobody would ever again wonder who passed gas in that crowded room or elevator because the flow of color would be a dead giveaway.

Some people can actually smell color, see smells, and various intertwining of sensory input.  They're the people with a condition (talent?) called synesthesia.  I think to spend a day with something like this would be fascinating.

I wonder sometimes about fruit flies.  I think they have a talent like I'm describing.  It's almost as if they can see a certain color of something from all the way across a room, at which time they come flying over to where you're sitting and trying to eat your sandwich in peace and quiet.

I know there is no way we will ever be able to perceive such a thing.  Only the free thinkers of the world can "see" things that are intangible like this, and when they do everybody else just rolls their eyes (which you may have done already while you are reading this).  Most people dismiss anything they can't see, feel, taste, or touch as non-existent.  We're used to "seeing" air that is transparent.

What if we awoke one morning to find that our eyes had suddenly become sensitive to the infrared light spectrum?  We would be able to see things portrayed as various colors depending on their levels of hot and cold.  Imagine:  Everything would have a different color depending on its temperature.

You know what I think?  I think these things that I have described do exist.  They may exist in another species, be it insect, mammal, bird, or reptile.  Chances are we will never know.  We have no way to see through another creature's eyes and interpret what their brain interprets.

Yet.

If you ask me, I don't think we humans could handle such a sensory input as infrared light perception or visible scent waves.  Our brains are too primitive.  Sure, we think we're smart, but we are barely able to handle the limited inputs we already have.

Still, it's fun to think about.