What Happens If Humans Suddenly Became Blind? | Unveiled

<h4>

What Would Happen If Humans Suddenly Became Blind?</h4>

The power of sight is one of the most incredible and vital senses that humankind has. The translation of light into imagery, from the eye to the brain; for those who’ve never lost it, or have never had it under threat, it’s a magic that can be easily forgotten as just a fact of life. But, really, sight is much more delicate than that, and it could be taken away at any one time. So, what if that happened, but to everyone?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what would happen if humans suddenly became blind?

Sudden societal blindness has appeared in science fiction before, perhaps most notably in John Wyndham’s 1951 post-apocalypse masterwork, “The Day of the Triffids”. In the book, the vast majority of people find themselves unable to see, following a mysterious, celestial event that also gives rise to an invasion of killer plants. For today’s video, we can leave the murderous trees out of it… but “Triffids” does pose some interesting, wider questions, about how civilization would cope if all (or most) of it couldn’t see. Another prominent example of this particular story is the 1995 novel “Blindness” by José Saramago. A work which contributed to Saramago’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, it tells of how a sudden, mass onset of blindness triggers near-complete social collapse. But, as great as both books are, what would really happen if anything like this came to pass?

First off, it would have to be something universal for such an event to unfold. This could mean something from space, as per Wyndham; something in the atmosphere, like a vision-busting pollutant; or a problem in the water, like an eye-feeding parasite. However it takes shape, though, one day everyone does wake up not being able to see. What then?

The panic would be instant, although there would also be two distinct stages to it. One, the panic you’d feel individually when you realized that you yourself were blind… and two, the panic you’d experience as you gradually worked out that so was everyone else. Consider a single family living in a house together. One member wakes up to darkness, and calls for help… which wakes another member who finds the same, and calls for help, as well. Which wakes the rest of the household, who must quickly come to terms with their new collective reality. After some time (and presumably suspecting some kind of gas leak in their home) they head outdoors for aid, only to find that their neighbors are just as terrified… and their neighbors, too. The whole street, the whole town. The ever-growing group of suddenly blind people might now suspect some kind of large-scale chemical attack, an act of war by some other state… but news gradually filters through that it’s more than just one city. More than just one country. That it’s everywhere. The instant panic of those first few moments has grown and grown, mutated into something else entirely. An unprecedented global emergency.

That filtering through of the news would reveal one of the first major problems, too. Communication and coordination. Every daily task is made more difficult without sight to guide, so it’s not as though anyone would be just switching on the TV or radio and waiting for regular updates. The majority of people wouldn’t have TV or radio setups to cater for blind users, so navigating your set would be difficult to begin with. But there’d also be nothing on, anyway, as the reporters, producers, the engineers, everyone involved in broadcasting the news would be blind as well, and facing all the same everyday challenges as everyone else. Immediately, no one gets to work, even if they still wanted to. And no one can broadcast to the world, say, without the hundreds of people that make it happen before the camera even rolls.

Clearly, this problem of coordination would stretch far beyond just the more obvious avenues like the media and the internet. While those are quickly shutting down, left to dwindle into nothingness, the fundamental human needs for food and water swiftly take over. How to quench thirst? How to beat hunger? In a world where the farms, the supermarkets, and the water companies all suddenly stop functioning as their workforce has been struck down, en masse, by the same sudden condition. This is now a world where travel of any distance is almost impossible, let alone larger-scale social structures like trade, diplomacy, law and order - all of those would quickly crumble. In general, this would be a bizarre and wholly untested disaster that not even the most thorough end-of-the-world prepper could have anticipated… so there’d be literally no plans in place to fall back on. For anyone. It would all have to be made up on the spot. What would you do first? Where would you go? How about after a day or two, when the true scope of the situation becomes clearer? Let us know in the comments what your course of action would be!

Without sight, we’d all be relying much more heavily on our other senses, but probably on our hearing most of all. This alternate world certainly isn’t a quiet place. Everyone in it would now be primarily guided by voices, sirens, by any kind of repetitive sound. But, without your eyes to show you, how well could you ever trust anything you hear? How well could you ever trust anyone you meet? Long-held friendships might rapidly fall away, if you suspect - in your heightened state - that your buddy might be trying to trick or use you. Fear and suspicion would run amok. And even those who are more dedicated to always seeing (or hearing) the best in people… would have to balance their optimism with caution, or else risk their safety through their naivety. How do you think people would react? Again, this feeling of extreme unease has been explored before in the movies - for example, in the 2019 film, “Bird Box”. In “Bird Box” there is, of course, another chilling twist to contend with, but even so it’s a story that leaves you feeling jumpy just watching it. If all humans suddenly became blind in real life, that feeling massively intensified could leave the whole of the world on edge.

Would leaders emerge out of the chaos? Perhaps, but only ever on a smaller, local scale. International politics would certainly be a thing of the past… while the development of technology, for all it might help us in most other apocalypse scenarios, would quickly grind to a halt. If there are leaders, then their journey to a position of authority would take a long, long time. Perhaps, in the long-term future, radio setups would be rebooted and a sense of organization could be re-achieved… at which point, a leader might again become a recognizable figure to many. And a figure of hope, as well. But such a scenario would be very difficult to picture, in those early days. Equally, perhaps places like schools, restaurants and parks would be reestablished, if given enough time. Although, again, it could take years before humans would band together enough to make that possible. 

Would we have that sort of time to play with, though? For the majority, the sad truth is probably not. A pandemic of sudden blindness would likely kill off most people before they’d even properly come to terms with the change they had experienced. Finding food would prove too difficult; securing water would be too hard, especially once the taps run dry. Keeping safe would be a twenty-four hour concern.

Of course, back in the real world, and blind people can live comfortable lives. According to most major authorities (including the World Health Organization) there are around forty million blind people alive today. That number - while huge - is still just a small fraction of the global population, however, which passed eight billion in 2022. The alternate world that we’ve set out in this video shows just how challenging life without sight is, for those who can no longer see or have never seen before. The hope is that technology will continue to improve, to better the lives of the blind; or even to cure blindness, in the years to come. 

But if, between now and then, an event were to happen to rob everyone of their sight, then it really could be a fatal blow for most. And those that survive would need to adjust to an all new life experience. Because that’s what would happen if humans suddenly became blind.