2018-02-18 15:38:34

I all.
I was wondering, if any of you could have the possibility to get his sight back would you do it?
I personally, wouldn't.
Take me as stupid, or what ever you want, but I think that if I would take my sight back, that would mean, building all my life from ZERO again.
I'd like to hear what you guys would do
smile
REGARDS

Paul

2018-02-18 15:56:36

I would do it, but I have grown comfortable with blindness in a way I never thought possible. I'm much happier blind than partially sighted.

2018-02-18 15:59:06

So are you willing to drop all your happiness away for the sight back?

Paul

2018-02-18 16:10:15

since I recently lost my sight, I certainly will say yes.

2018-02-18 16:21:23

Would I?

Yes, and no....

Or: It depends entirely on whether....

a. The sight I'd get back is decent
b) If it'd degrade over time

So....in short, mark me down as neutral

Warning: Grumpy post above
Also on Linux natively

2018-02-18 16:42:53

fuck yes. this is never the life I wanted, and it never will be. requiring sighted for something stupid as using the BIOS in your computer, to either rely on family members or public transport. just fuck all that. it's just not what Iwas after, and I never will be. if it takes 3 years of depression, only to then get full sight, or enough sight to be able to see things (even if to not pass the driving license) I will be one of the first to go for it. I thought about it many many times, I thought of it from all points that I could, and my answer hasn't changed. as much as people will disagree with me, having sight issues  still causes us challenges every day. I can't think of a day, where I wouldn't wish I had sight.

2018-02-18 16:50:29

I would get my sight back in a heartbeat! Even if it means I need to take a year or 2 to get used to everything again. I lost my sight when I was only 3 and there isn't a day that goes by that I wouldn't get it back if I could. I often thought about what I would do first when I got my sight back and here is what I would do. I would go to the library to the children's section and look at picture books to help reprogram my brain. In order for me to get my sight back they have to find a way to grow optic nerves which would be near impossible to do today. I am hopeful for the future but I'm not counting on it because I know that it may not happen in my life time. Another issue even if they can grow optic nerves is the brain tumor I had that caused me to lose my sight is still there. It’s been inactive for 24 years or so now but still I think that would cause some issues. If it can be done and it can be done to full 20 20 vision you bet I would! If it’s just for shadows and outlines it’s not worth it to me.

Kingdom of Loathing name JB77

2018-02-18 16:52:00

Hello,
Personally I would, but not for now. I need to prepare for my univercity exam. After that finishes, I definitely would. I know that you're going to start life from day0 again and it's going to be difficult, but at the end there's driving. big_smile

I post sounds I record to freesound. Click here to visit my freesound page
I usually post game recordings to anyaudio. Click here to visit my anyaudio page

2018-02-18 17:05:05

Well yeah. At least if I would take my sight back, I could make what I've always dreamed to do.

Paul

2018-02-18 17:16:35

Braile, I couldn't have said it better. Imagine going to a building, and spending a few minutes finding the entrance, or finding  a classroom door etc. Do you have any idea how degrading it is to me to ask someone to tell me something, or where something or another is? I feel like a retard in those situations. Or,  the simple hard cold fact that many people avoid blind people, and keep distance with them?? Being isolated socially for life is like a societal prison sentence. And I don't believe for a second the bullshit perpetuated  by blindness organizations that blindness is just minor. I would say that whoever honestly believes that is, A: mentally unstable, or B: seriously out of touch with reality. Blindness causes problems in many facets of life, which should be obvious to anyone.
So, on to the question, unless the therapy had a statistically significant possibility of brain damage, I would opt for it in a heartbeat, even if it only just gave me light perception.  You see, light perception would lift the curse of non-24, that is inflicted, when you happen to be unfortunat enough to be totally blind, which btw, is also one facet of blindness.
An additional reason that motivates my dicision is the possibility of hearing loss. I have a disorder which is very likely to result in eventual severe to total hearing loss, though I hope it doesn't. It doesn't help that there are many people in the family with hearing loss, independant of my disorder. If you are sighted, this wouldn't be so bad. However, when you are blind, this could seriously alter my life.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2018-02-18 17:47:05 (edited by Amit 2018-02-18 17:51:40)

Hi,
First, I agree with what others have already said above.
Very interesting topic. I wish I knew how to use English properly to say my thoughts, in proper detail like others do, but unfortunately I don't posess enough English to say the things I want in the detail I like. Still, IF there was a chance to get my site back, I would consider it. Why would I consider it? I've been blind since birth, never seen the beauty of this world, everyone keeps teasing about. Not having site presents a new challenge everyday. Taking challenges is a great way to improve yourself, but the challenges it sometimes throws at you are the problems you don't want to face. For example, if you are in a business meeting or interview or are in any other professional environment, you will need to constantly look for body signals, such as tapping the shoe or what does it mean when the person next to you is looking at the clock while talking. If you are not aware of these chances are that you will end up putting a bad impression on that person. Or imagine the joy of scanning your whole textbook and OCRing if it's not available in an accessible electronic format. Sited people won't have to deal with these things at all. For them it's nothing. They won't even bother about it and while you are continuesly flipping the pages on a scanner and pressing keys to get the book redable they will be reading a lot ahead than you. Basically I'm trying to state that not having the site presents extra tentions to us which a normal person doesn't need to deal with. On top of that I'm around in a society which is not supportive. You want to go in an institute to learn computer science? call them and they say that sorry you are blind we can't teach you. Why won't you? I know about computers and I'm able to use it at full speeds. All right, then we won't teach you. And they hang up. Even after you manage to learn things and start making some really outstanding programs, one point will come where you will absolutely need your site or sited assistance for hours. For example there's no way we can use the powerful game engines like unity. We can tangle around with it and come up with a game running, but we won't be using it's full powers like unity editor. Why? Because that kind of work is very visual and requires site. A similar example is video editing. A blind person can never do it properly. IF they edit  The edits they do are just workarounds and simple cutting pasting. And similar countless examples can be given. So what I'm trying to say is having site will allow you to reach  your dream at more speed and ease than you will do without site. Now one last thing. Sited people live a life like us too. They eat drink and sleep and do all things we are doing. They face worries like us.  It's not like they are living a better life out there. The only reason we feel this difference is because they just have to deal with life itself. they are not having to deal with the extra issues that we have to face. So taking this large post into consideration, I'd say if there is the slighest chance that you can get your site back, you should definitely consider this a golden opportunity. Not everyone is that lucky, and sometimes you will end up living around people who will take you as a topic of entertaitment because you are different.
Regards,
Amit

There once was a moviestar icon.
Who prefered to sleep with the light on.
They learnt how to code, devices sure glowed,
and lit the night using python.

2018-02-18 18:10:36

@10: I agree and disagree. Personally, if I'm...say out for a meal I usually* get the wait staff helping me out once they notice my cane and such, I've had cleaning staff help me out if i'm...say in a store and they strike up a conversation, so I get where you're coming from but in my experiences, once you're out of school and away from blindness services, and out in the real world, I personally have found people to be mostly helpful and genuine, though yes, there are two faced people out there and people who avoid blindies, but...I've on the whole had mostly positive reactions from people I've run across in every day life.

That being said I'll expand on your point on blind services: I find them degrading, demeaning and extremly, extremely pushy, maybe it's a cultural thing. I split time between the UK and US when I got the cash, and in both countries, the RNIB and NFI/AFB/whatever else is Stateside are extremely pushy. I've stood in an apartment in Boston (staying with a friend) and had an NFB representative loudly tell the whole, fucking, floor, quote: Oh he can't do that, he's blind, here's what you have to do, this, this and this. Ended up taking a call to the cops to get the guy out for harrassment, plus he put his hands on me and I told the cop I was willing to press assault charges. That shut the NFB guy up. Or the NFB (again...they are pushy) guy who wanted me to quit using programs on my laptop because they 'were not blind friendly'

Programs in question? Notepad. Chrome, Oh and....best one.....Windows desktop back when I had Windows. They tried pushing me to buy, yes, BUY Jaws, I told them politely I wasn't interested, they got aggressive and said, quote: You'll never succeed in life if you don't use our stuff.

Nope, no thanks. I said something like you go first down the stairs but be warned, I may trip over my cane. That subtle threat got the guy to leave me the hell alone. No, I ain't joking about that last story either. Maybe it's just a New England thing, but......

Alright, anyone who has been to NE knows we (and I'm practially one by association) love to say fuck a lot. It's a thing up there, and hey, I've heard everyone say it, what the fuck is pretty much a question up there, from gas prices (looking at you BP!) to just a general inquri to everyday speech. So I got told I shouldn't say it. My response was summed up in four letters. Not to mention the response of the other people I was hanging out with. I believe from memory there were a few threats to punch said blind services guy.

RNIB's no better. I have a social worker here who drops by to help cook and for a talk and such, I told her I'm not okay with stuff being forced on me, i.e. braille, and we had a long discussion about it while I was slicing up fish. She said something to the effect of the RNIB is out of touch with modern life. That, I agree with. I don't see the point of going all in with blind services, more use them as a resource for, say, Kindles (I love my paperwhite thanks...), and such but don't take their bullshit seriously, if I did I'd be posting this from an internet enabled brailler while waving my cane around the floor demanding my room door be brailled. That's the level of bull my local RNIB people are pushing for. I've explained I use the web a lot, and I'm fine on Linux, I'm used to it. They told me Linux isn't accessible, despite me showing them it is, then I 'must use VInux' despite me pointing out it won't be supported next year, and walking them through my laptop setup (Solus/Orca works fine for me), they then tried to force me to sign up for braile lessons. No thanks....I told them so, hey tried guilt tripping me into it.

Warning: Grumpy post above
Also on Linux natively

2018-02-18 18:28:18

Part of me says yes, I'd do it, because I'm a parent, because I'm a dad, because I want to provide the best I can for my children, because the world is majorly sighted and doing things as a blind and practically deaf individual is hard hard stuff!
And then... I begin to wonder how long it would take me to cope with the influx of information, the amount of things I was never aware of before, all of the intricacies I missed by being blind.  I'm nearing thirty now; I have to come to grips with the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be.  Getting my sight 15, 20 years ago would have been ideal; I'm not sure about that now.  I'd need to know that,
1.  I would recognize what I'm seeing.
2.  I would have vision good enough to do what most of the world does.
3.  I would be able to go back to the darkness in which I dwell at present, provided nothing works as expected.

When life gives you oranges, demand lemons since everyone else is obviously getting them.

2018-02-18 18:41:33

hi jase,
No you get me wrong on something.  The people are very nice and offer to help. Asking for help feels degrading or struggling with something. It is that which is humiliating. Also, I really love it when those so called blindness organizations claim they support all! blind people, in Turkey etc. Whoever they support, it certainly isn't me.
One incident was really telling about the NFB
I was subscribed to the CS list, and one guy accused another guy of being a muslim terrorist and an anti-nfb campaigner, who dared! to criticize! them. He then advocated harassing him in rl, and by e-mail. I told him, as well as other members, that this was off topic, and that he shouldn't post this stuff to the list. However, the moderator of the list, stepped in, and said he was the moderator, and he was the one deciding what was allowed and not.  He didn't say anything to tthat guy.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2018-02-18 18:51:56

Well, I'm not sure if the op was asking if you'd want your sight back if you previously had it during early childhood or something, or if you'd want it back even if you never had it. I never had sight, so I'm going to take it from that angle.

braille0109 wrote:

this is never the life I wanted, and it never will be. requiring sighted for something stupid as using the BIOS in your computer, to either rely on family members or public transport...

I totally agree with this. I try not to feel miserable about it, and my ability to ward off the "Why me" attitude has drastically improved as I've gotten older, but still. There isn't a day that goes by when I do wish I wasn't dealt this hand. But I can't do anything about it now.

I once was told by my girlfriend's dad that because I was blind I'd always be at a disadvantage because of not being able to see, so I'd have to work 10 times harder to keep up with everyone else. At first I was inclined to agree with this, then I stopped and thought about it. Maybe during my depressive moments (which come more often than I like to admit), I would agree with that. But on the whole, it is just sad and discouraging to think that way. Sure I might not be happy about being blind, but I don't consider it as an uphill battle just to keep pace with sighted peers. I feel quite the opposite actually. I've given up doing those uphill battles. If I put a lot of effort into something, it's not because of my blindness, it's because I want to put the effort in. I don't use my blindness as a motivator to get things done or to prove that I can accomplish a challenge, and I think that's part of why I've been able to accept it more easily.

Even so, if you asked me if I'd want sight, I'd still jump on that. As a child I would not have hesitated or thought about it. And I'm pretty sure a fair number of sympathetic sighted people wouldn't hesitate or think much about it either, and would tell me to do it. But I know now it isn't that simple. Realistically I would never have a normal life even if I could see right now. At the age of 25 my brain is far outside that childhood plasticity where it can just learn complex things and make them second-nature. Sure I could probably find some ways to make use of sight if I had it now, but it would never be the same as someone who was born with sight. There are stories you can read about people who have gone blind for years and were able to get their sight back, and they say they really can't make much practical use of their vision because their brain still hasn't learned how to interpret visual input fluidly. Even so, I'd still be eager to try. I'd be more cautious than I would've been as a child, and I certainly would be more anxious about the whole thing, but I would love the chance of a lifetime. All that would have to happen is to either find some way to re-attach my retinas, or bypass the retina (I went blind from rop), and I heard at least a few years ago that research for such people was encouraging though it will probably be in its infancy for a while. I'd love to try documenting/journaling my experiences somehow if I could. I'd want to try to learn to read print, or maybe play some video games. Driving was never something I cared about and honestly I wouldn't trust myself with a car, but that's for the very distant future and I can't really process that at the moment. I think my biggest downfall would be my hope. Even now I'm getting myself wound up over the possibilities, and I don't take failure too well. Ah well, at least it's not something that I'll have to think about for a while.

People have told me that I shouldn't bother because the shock would be too great. That's a fair point, though I hope that I would find some way to prepare for it so that at least I could cope. I think just being aware of it would help me somewhat, though I can't really say. Right now that's not a major concern of mine. It's not like I'm expecting it to happen so I don't really need to contemplate it just yet.

Some people have told me that I should be proud of being blind instead of resenting it because it makes me different and I shouldn't want to take that special thing away. A couple people take their differences to extremes and try to convince the rest of the world to treat them a certain way because their blindness means or doesn't mean something. I understand the angles they are coming from, or at least I try to. I really do. But I still can't find a reason to be happy about being blind or to fight for societal reform.

Humans are humans, and our reaction to disability is, I believe, just part of our nature. Even though it's changed over the years, forcing change often leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The best we can do is to make things more accessible to those with disabilities, and to educate each other. All I ask from someone is to give me an honest chance when they meet me and try to be open-minded. I don't ask to be thought of a certain way, or for people to assume or not assume certain things about me. With all the stupid stereotypes out there, I don't take it personally when people ask me stupid questions, so long as they are willing to hear what I have to say. Of course if someone pulls me out into the street assuming that I am trying to cross, that is a different matter entirely, but even so, there's a common courtesy that we listen to each other, and it's something we all should be doing, whether a disabled person is involved or not. I don't buy into a lot of disability advocate groups for this reason, because they seem to try to confine your way of thinking to one way instead of encouraging the thought that disabled people, or people with any label, are just as different as people without a label.

As you can probably tell I feel very strongly about this. But it's still just my opinion. Opposing ones certainly exist, and there's no right one. If there was, we would all surely be subscribing to it by now. I try to understand the opposing opinions, because they've helped make me more cautious and informed than I once was, and that's not a bad thing at all.

enes wrote:

light perception would lift the curse of non-24, that is inflicted, when you happen to be unfortunat enough to be totally blind, which btw, is also one facet of blindness.

I have to disagree. While many people who are completely blind have non 24, I have it too and I have light perception. It's gotten worse as my light perception has dimmed, but I still have enough light perception to clearly see when it's daylight, and I can sleep through the daylight hours just fine when my sleep schedule is out of whack. I can even stick to a 24-hour nocturnal schedule for a while and try as I might, I can't fix it. I'm not trying to argue since I am not an expert by any means, but I don't think sight is the magic cure for non 24 in all cases. I think the biology of it is often overlooked/not well understood.

Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
If you like what you're reading, please give a thumbs-up.

2018-02-18 19:04:14

Amit, JaseK, and Nocturnus, very awesome posts!
Amit, your English was very adequate, and I understood you clearly. You really spoke a beautiful message, and I really hope you continue to have that attitude. Those are the kinds of things we need to have said.
JaseK those stories sound absolutely horrible. I've experienced similar embarrassment but nothing on that level requiring the cops to be called. The way you explained everything really compelled me and echoed some feelings I've had over the years.
Nocturnus, you make a really good point about being able to revert to darkness if things didn't go well. This was something I thought about but didn't get around to writing down.

Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
If you like what you're reading, please give a thumbs-up.

2018-02-18 19:16:53

Hello,
Definitely yes, and a loud yes, because the sight was taken from me unfairly, when I was just a little baby of one and a half years old, without knowing what are weapons, what is bloodfude or anything of that nature. But even if I was born completely blind, I would say yes, for blindness causes numerous problems in my daily life. It completely takes away my independence because I cannot travel alone, I cannot live on my own, I am unable to pursue studies abroad for I lack even the most basic training in transportation. Since the very last day when I graduated from the primary school for the blind, and up to this day which is the last year of my university, I have had to ask the assistance of my brother or my parents to send me to school and bring me back home. Even education was highly problematic for me as I sometimes needed to read books which were only in print and all of them would have to be scanned page by page by my brother, worst being the case when the results would turn out to be rubbish. This happened not only with school books, but also with books I needed to use for research.
I won't go any further, because all the other things have been written above, more profoundly than I would be able to.

2018-02-18 20:09:39

hi afrim,
I think you should study abroad, as apparently accessibility of buildings and public places is better in developed countries compared to places like turkey. I am preparing my documents and stuff to do just that.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2018-02-18 20:12:48

and raygrote,
Remember that 70% of all totally blind individuals have non 24. So it obviously is somehow related to being blind. People who have light perception are significantly less likely to have it. So it would more than likely solve it.
And also note that the instances of people being restored their sight are extremely rare now, and so the results are mostly speculation at this point. A few anecdotal reports should and cannot be enough to make educated dicions on whether or not our brains can take it.

A learning experience is one of those things that say, "You know that thing you just did? Don't do that."

2018-02-18 20:19:30

I'd like what I had, because what I had was good enough to play 2d games. Around the time I was 10-11, I concluded that's pretty much all I used it for, that and drawing / trying to coax animation out of computers.
OK, few things I overlooked, but most of them don't change the answer.
I'd be worried that my vision was in the "just good enough to get into trouble" range, and I'm not really sure how I'd adjust to trying to get around with vs without.
Would I want perfect vision? No. I think that'd be annoying and distracting and if it tried to take over my perception the way it does the mode sighted person, that'd be horrifying.
I really don't like the attention from wannabe Good Samaritans. Somehow, I think perfect vision would just exacerbate the problem, in the sense that I'd suddenly be in the nonverbal communication realm, making being in the presence of other people more stressful, I should think. Meanwhile, I know that places where this is only an occasional issue in unusual circumstances exist. And, well, if people are exposed to blind people going about their business normally, then a significant chunk of the motivation to interfere diminishes.

Re: neural plasticity, a few years back, a paper was published about a substance which apparently made it much, much easier for people over 50 to learn perfect pitch. Will anything come of this? Well, I want it to, so probably not. sad But if the effect generalizes, as the publications suggested it should, it'd be the sort of thing someone adjusting to a new or restored sense would definitely want.

I struggle to imagine me being able to drive safely. In the US, cars are the most common cause of death for people under 40. You have to pay attention to everything everywhere all the time, with like three mirrors, traffic, signs, pedestrians, animals, construction, weather, etc, etc, at 10-20 times walking speed. It's a miracle if I can finish a—oh, I nearly forgot that I just woke up from a dream about trying to walk somewhere while some alleged OnM person followed me around being annoying. So that was weird.

Still, I like color and want it back. I like what I had because it was good enough without overpowering everything else. I don't like there being well near nothing I can read around while everyone else can just grab a book or read an obnoxious screenshot (seriously WTF do people do that). There's a lot I'd rather not be left out of.
But it's tradeoffs all the way down. So ultimately, I'd have to go with what I had when I was 10-11. Plus some kinda animation software at least as intuitive as Spider-man Cartoon Maker, for my own amusement.

Most of my problems are either not to do with blindness, or to do with being a poor minority whose means of interacting with the world are largely ignored by the majority. Vision is highly unlikely to change the former, and doing something so dramatic to fit into this world instead of building my own... well, it's practical, I suppose, but I'd rather not.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2018-02-18 20:28:25 (edited by CAE_Jones 2018-02-18 20:29:46)

And also note that the instances of people being restored their sight are extremely rare now, and so the results are mostly speculation at this point. A few anecdotal reports should and cannot be enough to make educated dicions on whether or not our brains can take it.

The way in which the brain works suggests that the anecdotes would be the norm. The visual cortex is the biggest part of the sighted brain. Blind brains reallocate parts of it for things like language processing. We have a finite amount of processing power, and it gets increasingly difficult to reallocate with age. We're also not just relying on human anecdotes; the same applies to birds and mammals.
Of course, it's entirely possible that the neural plasticity enhancer I mentioned above works reliably for everything, and won't just languish in the enormous piles of "things that would be really cool if anyone developed and released them affordably". In which case, this would become moot.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2018-02-18 20:37:00

Wow.
That is another interesting what if topic.
A lot of my projects I do especially government projects have to do with what if.
What if you went blind tomorrow what would you do.
Things like that.
So what would happen if I could get my sight back.
Having been born blind thats actually a hard one.
Ok, on the good side I'd have a chance of getting a job.
I could drive a vehicle, buy a house, even well maintain my own house and really have a life.
On the down side, though, ie what if I could see tomorrow, I don't know if I would.
Firstly I am used to braille and speech, I'd have to do without both, and I'd probably miss it though I could run what I wanted.
I wouldn't need a cane, that would be nice I keep forgetting it if I don't concentrate enough.
Now the rest though.
Having been taught special things and a few special skills as well as some mainstreaming, I'd be poor, helpless and retarded all over again.
I can type, but not write, read, do math on paper.
I can't draw, I'd have to go back to primary school again, and work up from the start probably, I'd have to get used to not touching things.
Ofcause my condition rop, which basically means premiture birth and retenal detatchment etc type thing, well that don't happen anymore to those even if they are born as I was.
I am one of the last of a breed of blind people of my condition so I don't know.
While I bitch and moan about my life sometimes, in some ways my life is freer and richer than any sightling life.
I get up at 6, I do the house chores for family, I train in my home gym, and I read books, swim in my local pool at home, play piano well I do sometimes and play computer games as well as do work from home when it comes.
I don't have to deal with such things as traffic jams, accidents, and normal things.
When family finally die, I will be moved hopefully to a home where I can continue my life as it is till its over.
That may be sad for some and yes it probably is for me, but at least I have a life, and I will know where its structure starts and ends.
Especially with the world as it is, I wander if any normals actually know where they start and or end.
Its nice to know where I am going even if where I will end up is probably another hospital.
Rarely do we as humans especially in these troubled times know where we are going.
And even if all hell breaks loose because I am blind I will be almost completely helpless for the real things, and so I will help where I can and continue as I am.
And because I am a helpless blind, I am not expected to do what I can't do even more so.
This means I can make my own decisions on what I do and do not do.
I used to hate this and to some extent I still do, however I count myself freeer than some of my sighted peers.
I also have friends autistic ones that while mostly normal but with a few added issues, can't find work either or in fact much.
Like me one of my best friends is almost like me.
But his family work all day, and he has never seen anything bar the net.
He lives online, and while he does go out who knows what his life will be like.
Due to his life being as  it is he sleeps all day and is depressed and on loads and loads of drugs to handle that.
I have another worse than that, who was born with a hole in their head.
Our laws don't allow her to be put down or aborted or anything, and while thats really not good for a disabled, she is not aware and has been like that for her life.
She fits, is totally retarded and dumb not of her own choosing.
She gets frustraited, angry and violent and is abused in the care homes she goes to and her mum and family have health and other issues because of this.
I know others with different disabilities, some worse some better and so I am lucky to be blind and not worse.
Sure if I could become sighted, I'd jump at the chance even if that means my comfortable life will be over.
It would be a way out of the bad side of my life and I could try to start with the future where ever that will be.
Then again it would depend what that was.
I'd need to redo parts of my university and in fact need to go back, I'd have to start from kindergarten all over again.
If I survived all that I'd be an old man, and no use to anyone.
I am unsure exactly what I would do if well who knows.
Saying that, if it cost as much as the new orbit reader, I'd do it.
What I'd like to be honest would be a way to be able to see but a way that would allow me to become blind again.
Maybe some tech I could turn on and off.
Part of me wants to leave my disabled life but there is a part that is used to it.
I don't know if I could cope outside my life bad that it can sometimes bee.
So you asked the question, I guess if I could see tomorrow, my answer would be I'
don't know what I'd do.
It would be another set of studdies.
If the sighted go blind well.
Then again, all my studdies have shown at least in the research projects I do, is that the part of your brain that process images is not dead.
So in a sence your video card is not dead, just the moniter and maybe its cabling.
Replace the cabling and moniter and things would work.
Previously it was thought that once you well went blind your video card just switched off and you wouldn't ever see again.
Thinking on it now though, I am 35 years old now a reeducation through school to relearn everything would take between 10-20 years or so I guess pluss university again.
Maybe less, I am 35 now by the time I could be usefull to anyone I'd be 60 or so and be in a home anyway.
If I could I wouldn't say I wouldn't I'd try, but I think this getting the sight back is to the newer generations and those that still have a chance.
I am used to what I am and I know where I am going.
But if I could I would even if it never went anywhere.

2018-02-18 20:40:05

No, I would not take sight if it were offered. For one thing, I do have partial sight, its only in one eye, my left eye has none, not even light perception. That doesn't mean I can use it for much of anything. I can read print if its sufficiently large enough, but its tiring and will cause a sort of ache in my eyebrows. I also have nistagnus, the eye jumping condition, so to focus on anything requires a bit of effort. To restore the vision would be to readjust to too many things. My way of judging distances would be thrown off and I would have to re-learn it. I would probably be stopping short of things I wanted to reach for, etc. I already know what color is, but I don't have 3D vision, so no stereoscopic type binocular vision, so getting used to having depth perception would be odd. I was given glasses and hate them. They made me feel like I was constantly walking down a ramp, oh just try it for two weeks, hell no. I couldn't even make it a day with those things on. They didn't even help with anything practical, made things look more sharp, but I'd trade that for the feeling of instability of footing. I do have to put more effort in, I do hae to scan shit, I do have to learn a remote or something to use it, learn the places of buttons on a washing machine etc. But the vision thing, its too uncertain for me to risk it, I get by the way things are now, why change that. OK, there's no arguing driving would be awesome, do the things you can do in a day with public transit in like 2 hours because you don't have to wait on buses would be awesome, and give vast freedom, but I'd probably mow people down because I have no patience and moronic drivers would push me over the edge.

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2018-02-18 21:36:47

One of the best things about being blind for me is that since I've been going out as a blind person over the past few years, I've enjoyed the warmth and kindness of the majority of society. There are some real arseholes, children of around 8 to 12 being the worst, but they're vastly out-numbered by the good. Even among the age group I thought might give me the most grief, young teens, they are mostly made up of decent considerate people, despite what the media would have us believe. Loads more people I don't know say hello to me on the street now than ever did when I had sight. People stop to offer me lifts occasionally, and although I always refuse because I enjoy walking, and wouldn't get into a car with a total stranger anyway, the act of kindness helps overwrite the idiots who very occasionally make fun. Or the one young boy who followed me around putting obstacles in my way, and even using a crowbar to lever up grid covers on my regular route, and ended up pathetically trying to threaten me with the crowbar. All people like this are really doing is telling me how weak and inadequate they are, and I dont' feel threatened in the slightest. But for every idiot there are a hundred decent people with too much self-respect to pick on the vulnerable, and getting to see that is the best thing about being blind.

2018-02-18 21:42:46

I would take it in a heartbeat. I had partial sight in one eye until I was 11 years old, good enough to read large print and play video games. I couldn't color well, and complex images took me a while to process. But now that I'm older, and with the blindness skills I have, I think I could compensate for the processing challenges and make it work. I have serious anxiety, and I think partial sight would help with traveling. I think I would still primarily use braille and audio for reading. I read print very slowly as a kid.
I would use sight to take walks. Sure I can go walking now, but it's not nearly as interesting when I can't look at the color of the sky or see how the sunlight is playing off objects. I would like to create computer generated art for my house since I was always terrible at drawing and coloring. I would like to play racing video games and animated cartoon games. It was always easier for me to see the bright colors of animation rather than the darker real world colors. I would be very okay with not driving. It would make me too nervous. I don't think I would mind public transportation and ride sharing so much if I had sight.

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