How do our human senses limit our understanding of how the universe works?

Question

Is it possible that they are things we just won't be able to comprehend. Are we limited?

Answer 1

How much time do you have? This is such a big question that it is very difficult. The short answer is that of course our limited senses do limit our complete understanding of the universe. On the other hand, we wouldn't understand anything at all without them, would we?

There are at least four ways to look at this --

1. The scientific, rationalist way, also known as empiricism. Empirical" as an adjective or adverb is used in conjunction with both the natural and social sciences, and refers to the use of working hypotheses that are testable using observation or experiment. In this sense of the word, scientific statements are subject to and derived from our experiences or observations.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical

2. The controversial idea that we will never know the world completely because we are trapped in our own first person views of the world. If you discount the old idea of solipicism here, the best example of the is a really interesting guy, David Chalmers.
See: http://philosophyofbrains.com/2006/10/20/firstperson-data-vs-sense-data.aspx

3. The idea that there are areas of the world we can't know no matter what we do. These guys are generally called the New Mysterianism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mysterianism

4. Finally, there is the idea that although we are limited in our ability to understand the world through our senses at present, we will one day be able to develop the technological equipment that will allow us to completely understand the universe. Is advancing technology deepening our sensory contact with reality or reducing it? There are technologies under development such as augmented senses and enhanced reality (a virtual overlay on our perceptions of external reality) will deepen our sensory contact with the world and its underlying nature. Over the next few decades we will not only achieve more penetrating sensory awareness of our environments, we will also gain a deeper sensory awareness of our internal bodily and cognitive processes. This gets into the new areas of the transhuman and the posthuman.
See:
http://www.maxmore.com/virtue.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhuman

I like option four, because it is the most exctiting for our future, but no one knows if we will ever be able to see the universe as it actually is. My guess is probably not, but it is great that we keep trying! Excellent question!

Answer 2

Well, a simple example is sight. The smallest object of determination that the human eye can see are the ridges on one's palms, which are even smaller than hair foilicles. The biggest object one can see unaided is the sky, and even that measurement, given a single straight-ahead stare, is probably less than several thousand miles, even smaller with no visual reference point (which probably brings it closer to several hundred).

Because of these limitations, any understanding or knowledge we can grasp about things outside of those registers (again, unaided by technology) can only come from intellectual reasonings. More so, how objects both greater and lesser have an impact on our lives, even though we cannot grasp their importance, by conclusion must therefore render our conclusions, at best, questionable if not outright false.

Having incomplete knowledge creates an incomplete 'theory', which in turn must be qualitifed whenever such new, heretofore unknown, information presents itself. We cannot answer the equation x + y = z, only guess, and the same goes for the equation x + 5 = z. However, once we get to the point where we have the equation 3 + 5 = z, then do we have enough information on which to state conclusively what z is, in this case 8.

Answer 3

the senses of a human can not comprehend how the universe works, but very open minds can. most people cant do it because the will of the brain says to not believe thing that are out of your comprehension unless it is described to you. the human brain is not developed enough to be able to understand things that are out of this universe or galaxy.

Answer 4

Our human senses are augmented by Telescopes,radio telescopes and spectrometers.
Without these aids our concept of the universe could be limited to local phenomina.
The human ability to understanding may be fairly extensive.
Some of the theories expounded by by scientist 200 years ago show the amasing capabilities ot the human brain.
There may be concepts that words may explain but could be incomprehensible to the human imagination.

Answer 5

Most definitely. We can't see atoms or nutrinos. OK, scientists know they are there, but what else is out there/here that they still don't know about. We can see atoms only with precise instruments. We can't see nutrinos, but scientists know they are there. They are passing right through us now, we can't feel them, or see them, they are in the billion upon billions in number. Gravity waves are unseeable (by the naked), but they are there. We don't sense them though. I think we are limited by our senses, and we will probably never understand the true nature of the universe, how it began, how it works or why it 'is'. There would be an infinitum of things we will never comprehend. Yes we are limited.

Answer 6

The easiest answer is the most obvious:

Your eyes are sensitive to the visible portion of the cosmic spectrum, and frequencies above and below are not visible.

Your ears are sensitive to the audible range of frequencies, and anything above or below are not audible.

So you're sensitive to two very tiny portions of the total of all possible spectrums, and whatever is going on inside them may be passing without our notice.

The real question is: is there anything actually going on?

We seem to be able to anticipate just about all physical phenomena in our world, I don't think there's very much left. If we were missing something major, don't you think there would be an aweful lot of confusing things going on?

Answer 7

Come on, if you knew everything there was to know, wheres the fun i waking up in the morning to discover new things??? Be happy that we are a limited race!!

Answer 8

We are humans, we always have to find why or how something happened, i have proof of this because you are asking about how the universe works. so of course we have mucked up our own future.

oh and one more thing, we only worry about things wen they actually happen, take global warming for example...

Answer 9

THE MOON IS COMING! THE MOON IS COMING!
QUICK EVERYBODY HIDE
The moon,...oh dear lord!

hide!

get indoors!