full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Andrew Leland: Blindness isn't a tragic binary -- it's a rich spectrum

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So every time I lose another chunk of vision, at first I feel super extra blind, sometimes secrad or claustrophobic. My world is shrinking. But then a week will go by, I get used to it, I don't feel so blind arnymoe.

This experience of seupr gduaral vision loss has given me time to think about what bsnleidns is, which might seem like an obvious question. Blindness is the absence of sight, but it's actually more complicated than that.

Trying to dneife blindness can start to feel paradoxical. There's a paroadx that's useful in thinking about blindness. It's called the paradox of the heap. Let's say you have a heap of something, like sand or marbles or goji berries. Now imnagie I take a single little goji berry off of the heap. Is it still a heap? OK, what if I remove a second tiny little goji berry from the heap? Obviously that is still a heap also. But, the ancient geerk philosopher wedonerd, at what point is it no longer a heap? How many goji berries do I have to remove? Is it still a heap when there's only ten left? Five? vosiin works this way too. How much vision do I need to lose before I can legitimately call myself blind? I saw this photo online the other day.

Open Cloze


So every time I lose another chunk of vision, at first I feel super extra blind, sometimes ______ or claustrophobic. My world is shrinking. But then a week will go by, I get used to it, I don't feel so blind _______.

This experience of _____ _______ vision loss has given me time to think about what _________ is, which might seem like an obvious question. Blindness is the absence of sight, but it's actually more complicated than that.

Trying to ______ blindness can start to feel paradoxical. There's a _______ that's useful in thinking about blindness. It's called the paradox of the heap. Let's say you have a heap of something, like sand or marbles or goji berries. Now _______ I take a single little goji berry off of the heap. Is it still a heap? OK, what if I remove a second tiny little goji berry from the heap? Obviously that is still a heap also. But, the ancient _____ philosopher ________, at what point is it no longer a heap? How many goji berries do I have to remove? Is it still a heap when there's only ten left? Five? ______ works this way too. How much vision do I need to lose before I can legitimately call myself blind? I saw this photo online the other day.

Solution


  1. vision
  2. gradual
  3. blindness
  4. super
  5. paradox
  6. anymore
  7. wondered
  8. greek
  9. define
  10. imagine
  11. scared

Original Text


So every time I lose another chunk of vision, at first I feel super extra blind, sometimes scared or claustrophobic. My world is shrinking. But then a week will go by, I get used to it, I don't feel so blind anymore.

This experience of super gradual vision loss has given me time to think about what blindness is, which might seem like an obvious question. Blindness is the absence of sight, but it's actually more complicated than that.

Trying to define blindness can start to feel paradoxical. There's a paradox that's useful in thinking about blindness. It's called the paradox of the heap. Let's say you have a heap of something, like sand or marbles or goji berries. Now imagine I take a single little goji berry off of the heap. Is it still a heap? OK, what if I remove a second tiny little goji berry from the heap? Obviously that is still a heap also. But, the ancient Greek philosopher wondered, at what point is it no longer a heap? How many goji berries do I have to remove? Is it still a heap when there's only ten left? Five? Vision works this way too. How much vision do I need to lose before I can legitimately call myself blind? I saw this photo online the other day.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
blind people 6
peripheral vision 2
goji berries 2
goji berry 2
white cane 2


Important Words


  1. absence
  2. ancient
  3. anymore
  4. berries
  5. berry
  6. blind
  7. blindness
  8. call
  9. called
  10. chunk
  11. claustrophobic
  12. complicated
  13. day
  14. define
  15. experience
  16. extra
  17. feel
  18. goji
  19. gradual
  20. greek
  21. heap
  22. imagine
  23. left
  24. legitimately
  25. longer
  26. lose
  27. loss
  28. marbles
  29. obvious
  30. online
  31. paradox
  32. paradoxical
  33. philosopher
  34. photo
  35. point
  36. question
  37. remove
  38. sand
  39. scared
  40. shrinking
  41. sight
  42. single
  43. start
  44. super
  45. ten
  46. thinking
  47. time
  48. tiny
  49. vision
  50. week
  51. wondered
  52. works
  53. world