Bill's Face Blindness vs. Phineas Gage

I was intrigued by Bill Choisser's web article on Prosopagnosia. Until Tuesday's class, I had never heard of this type of disability. Part of me wondered if people I know suffer from this! And if they do, are they aware of it? How many people in the world live their lives (like Bill did) without realizing that they have this disability?

The fact that the brain can make conclusions about what it sees (ex: determining that blocks on a shaded checkerboard are white when in fact they are black) or recognizes a face out of a bunch of blurry dots is something that I had entirely taken for granted before this class. Bill's disability also reminded of Phineas Gage's story in Descartes' Error; while Phineas did not die from his injury, the part of his brain that was removed from the explosion somehow contributed to his less desirable personality and demeanor. In a similar manner, some regarded Bill to be a rude person because he was incapable of recognizing people and occasionally ignored people with whom he had had lenghty conversations. While it makes perfect sense that Phineas' rude demeanor could be attributed to a missing piece of his brain that affects character, might he simply have been pissed off that he survived such a horrific accident?!?

Since it appears that the brain is so complex that no one knows for sure how individualized it is, could a new kind of blindness be discovered in years to come? Either way (and most ironically--please excuse the pun...), we can compare Bill's disability and Phineas' injury by saying that both of them couldn't see what was coming their way.