4 ms·

Scent is a unique sense, it is not decomposable. Taste is just a combination of 5 basic tastes, vision is a combination of 3 primary colors, etc.

viraptor 1y ago
There is a huge number of olfactory sensory cell types, but it's all still decomposable. Smell is not unique here.
- humpty-d 1y ago
  3 pedantic "well ackshually" comments saying scent is decomposable, yet 0 just decomposing it for us? I wonder why that is?
  - viraptor 1y ago
    Do you expect someone to dump a list of up to a thousand of molecules here, or what exactly...?
    - humpty-d 1y ago
      No, I expected you to prove my point by this very comment.
function_seven 1y ago
While (human) vision is 3 colors, reviews of visual arts obviously can't just describe the colors of the thing. It also has shape, depth, style, etc. Food reviewers don't note the levels of salt, sour, etc. They describe flavors and textures and parings. But also, I don't buy that taste is just the composition of 5 components. This sounds like a reference to that diagram of the tongue we've all seen. It's as complex as scent is. There's no way you can define the taste of cinnamon by specifying some sort of 5-tuple.
- kulahan 1y ago
  I believe he is correct. The misunderstanding is from the old chart that showed certain tastes were only detected by certain parts of the tongue. It’s still true that we can only taste salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. All other flavor complexities come from scent simultaneously giving us information. It’s why everything tastes so boring when you have a head cold.
- BurningFrog 1y ago
  Scent is part of the taste experience, despite being produced in the nose. Food also has a universe of possible consistencies.
- cyberax 1y ago
  Think about this, suppose you're on a Zoom call and you want a person on the other side of the call to match a color that you're seeing. You can say "make it more blue", "make it brighter", "shinier", etc. You can get pretty close to what you're seeing this way. With scent? Not even close.
  - function_seven 1y ago
    I have no idea why, but I interpreted your original comment completely differently Yeah, the only way I can describe scent to another person is to compare it to other scents that I hope we both have a common experience with. Thanks.
brokencode 1y ago
Scent is decomposable. There are many different scent receptors, but finite. Hearing is quite similar in that there are numerous different length hairs in the ear drum that can sense different frequencies of sound.
- cyberax 1y ago
  There are anywhere between 200 and 400 scent receptors in humans. Sure, this is a finite number, but for practical purposes it's not really decomposable.

viraptor 1y ago

There is a huge number of olfactory sensory cell types, but it's all still decomposable. Smell is not unique here.

humpty-d 1y ago
3 pedantic "well ackshually" comments saying scent is decomposable, yet 0 just decomposing it for us? I wonder why that is?
- viraptor 1y ago
  Do you expect someone to dump a list of up to a thousand of molecules here, or what exactly...?
  - humpty-d 1y ago
    No, I expected you to prove my point by this very comment.

function_seven 1y ago

While (human) vision is 3 colors, reviews of visual arts obviously can't just describe the colors of the thing. It also has shape, depth, style, etc. Food reviewers don't note the levels of salt, sour, etc. They describe flavors and textures and parings. But also, I don't buy that taste is just the composition of 5 components. This sounds like a reference to that diagram of the tongue we've all seen. It's as complex as scent is. There's no way you can define the taste of cinnamon by specifying some sort of 5-tuple.

kulahan 1y ago
I believe he is correct. The misunderstanding is from the old chart that showed certain tastes were only detected by certain parts of the tongue. It’s still true that we can only taste salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. All other flavor complexities come from scent simultaneously giving us information. It’s why everything tastes so boring when you have a head cold.
BurningFrog 1y ago
Scent is part of the taste experience, despite being produced in the nose. Food also has a universe of possible consistencies.
cyberax 1y ago
Think about this, suppose you're on a Zoom call and you want a person on the other side of the call to match a color that you're seeing. You can say "make it more blue", "make it brighter", "shinier", etc. You can get pretty close to what you're seeing this way. With scent? Not even close.
- function_seven 1y ago
  I have no idea why, but I interpreted your original comment completely differently Yeah, the only way I can describe scent to another person is to compare it to other scents that I hope we both have a common experience with. Thanks.

brokencode 1y ago

Scent is decomposable. There are many different scent receptors, but finite. Hearing is quite similar in that there are numerous different length hairs in the ear drum that can sense different frequencies of sound.

cyberax 1y ago
There are anywhere between 200 and 400 scent receptors in humans. Sure, this is a finite number, but for practical purposes it's not really decomposable.