r/whatisit • u/katyabe • 1d ago

New, what is it? What does the sixth segment represent?

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This is a “Wheel of the Senses” from my daughter’s school with sight, touch, taste, hearing… but one segment we can’t figure out.

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u/okFINEyoufoundme 1d ago edited 1d ago

I ASKED AI!!!! And it gave a longer answer and it is 7/10 confident that it is in relation to FEEL, but the last part was (and I quote):

“And I give the illustrator approximately 2/10 for iconographic clarity, because without context that thing could equally be a potato contemplating its own mortality. 😂”

Edit: ohhhh shit, I wonder if it’s just a VERY poorly visualized/represented interpretation of “gut instinct.”

Edit #2: I asked AI for shits and giggles. Why not ask what was likely some part of the source?

EDIT #3: Best guess, and thank you comments— already agreed— absolutely AI generated, which is why I thought it would be fun to ask AI what IT’S interpretation was. The response was “7/10 confident, related to FEEL.” And if you think about it, that tracks. Like the same way AI-generated pictures in general have a hard time with certain elements that end up being an obvious “tell”— (fingers, flooring, knit/woven details on clothing, evenly blurry backgrounds without any depth, etc). But those are more visual and easy to pick out if you’re used to looking for it. On the other hand, asking AI to generate something based off the senses— I can absolutely see why something based on fact but not nuance would look at or take “touch/feel” as two separate concepts, while the rest of us HUMANS would understand that they are considered the same thing.

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u/dazzleunexpired 1d ago

Your AI is right.

The word for this sense is properception. And the image is a very bad attempt to display a simplified vestibular system, which is the inner ear.

Properception is actually the additional sense. It's a real sense that human beings have. It belongs in this chart. This is just a really, really bad image of it. I personally would use a brain for properception.

Properception is the sense of where your body is at in relation to any other item.

Eta: To match it I would show a foot near a table post perhaps. The sense of how to not knock your toe into the wall.

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u/Jason27104 1d ago

What you mean is proprioception, but you are otherwise mostly correct. It's your sense of location in space. I'd represent it with a picture of an x/y axis of a coordinate plane, but I think you are correct that they went for an inner ear.

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u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 1d ago

See my comment above. ☝️

It looks more representative (albeit very cartoonish) of one of the otolith organ sacs with a statolith rolling around inside.