A question occurred to me the other day, which was to consider how science might have developed differently had humans possessed different senses. As an example, humans are significantly visual, but it is interesting to consider how things might be if we lacked vision.
While it would have obviously affected our lifestyles and evolutionary path, it is interesting to speculate on how our progress through scientific discovery might have also been affected. In the first place, we might consider the role vision (or any other sense) played in our intellectual development. If we had lacked vision, would we be less intelligent? Might there have been insurmountable obstacles to our intellectual development such that it would have prevented us from achieving the level of scientific knowledge that we currently possess?
There are some very obvious things that would be quite different ranging from our ability to recognize the universe, to our ability to read and write. Certainly there could be alternatives (such as a braille system) using other senses to accommodate these differences, but the point is to consider how these senses shaped the approach we've taken to acquiring knowledge.
Just as we've discovered many things for which we lack the senses to directly experience, it is quite likely that we could've developed the same knowledge without something like vision. On the other hand, we could also consider how many things would've taken longer or a more circuitous path if we didn't have vision. As a result, it is worth thinking about what might be biasing our current level of knowledge because of senses we don't have.
What other areas might these senses influence, because even the Pioneer plaque that was sent for potential aliens to discover, is essentially based on the implicit assumption that they are also visually oriented.
In any case, while there is nothing particularly "deep" about this speculation, it does provide an interesting perspective in how we acquire knowledge and the boundary conditions it invariably presents in our quest for knowledge.
