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> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory s

> They would call us stupid for not being able to remember the smell of more than a few dozen objects. Dogs obviously have incredibly more advanced olfactory systems but I feel like you're downplaying humans here. I'm pretty sure there's hundreds of very specific smells I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells and there's a lot of things.

BytesAndGears 3y ago
Plus the whole feeling of “I just smelled this thing and it reminds me of my aunt’s house, who died 35 years ago”. I think it’s pretty established that humans are very good with smell. We just aren’t very sensitive compared to dogs
- aqfamnzc 3y ago
  I recently started swimming for fitness after not doing so since 10 years ago in high school. I get a rush of nostalgia and a good feeling whenever I catch a whiff of chlorine on my hands or hair throughout the day.
tapland 3y ago
Just yesterday i experienced the smell that was just like the apples from a tree in our yard 25 years ago. There are easily many hundreds of unique smells we can identify.
thfuran 3y ago
The ability to remember specific sensory impressions just is not the same thing as sensory acuity. People can remember a bunch of things, but our noses aren't nearly as sensitive as dogs'.
sandworm101 3y ago
>> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells Those are classes of things, not specific objects. We all know the smell of erasers, but can we identify the smell of a specific eraser? Part of it is sensitivity but it is also largely that our brains are not designed to associate smells with individual objects. Think of how we handle faces, which we can spot even if at a different orientation than we have seen before. Or how we can hear a specific voice amongst a crowd. Dogs do that with scent profiles.
- dj_mc_merlin 3y ago
  This is a really good way to frame it that would indeed mean we only remember dozens of individual things, if that. The smell of home remains, as well as the smells of close relatives.. but I can't think of much else.
- ProfessorLayton 3y ago
  Not sure how to word this without getting too weird, but It's certainly possible to identify well over a dozen people by smell alone — not just friends/family that one spends a lot of time with, but also attractive people.

BytesAndGears 3y ago

Plus the whole feeling of “I just smelled this thing and it reminds me of my aunt’s house, who died 35 years ago”. I think it’s pretty established that humans are very good with smell. We just aren’t very sensitive compared to dogs

aqfamnzc 3y ago
I recently started swimming for fitness after not doing so since 10 years ago in high school. I get a rush of nostalgia and a good feeling whenever I catch a whiff of chlorine on my hands or hair throughout the day.

tapland 3y ago

Just yesterday i experienced the smell that was just like the apples from a tree in our yard 25 years ago. There are easily many hundreds of unique smells we can identify.

thfuran 3y ago

The ability to remember specific sensory impressions just is not the same thing as sensory acuity. People can remember a bunch of things, but our noses aren't nearly as sensitive as dogs'.

sandworm101 3y ago

>> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells Those are classes of things, not specific objects. We all know the smell of erasers, but can we identify the smell of a specific eraser? Part of it is sensitivity but it is also largely that our brains are not designed to associate smells with individual objects. Think of how we handle faces, which we can spot even if at a different orientation than we have seen before. Or how we can hear a specific voice amongst a crowd. Dogs do that with scent profiles.

dj_mc_merlin 3y ago
This is a really good way to frame it that would indeed mean we only remember dozens of individual things, if that. The smell of home remains, as well as the smells of close relatives.. but I can't think of much else.
ProfessorLayton 3y ago
Not sure how to word this without getting too weird, but It's certainly possible to identify well over a dozen people by smell alone — not just friends/family that one spends a lot of time with, but also attractive people.