Chapter 4. How Light Plays Tricks on Perception

How Light Plays Tricks on Perception

They consider me to have sharp and penetrating vision because I see them through the mesh of a sieve.

Kahlil Gibran, “A Handful of Sand on the Shore”

We all know we shouldn’t trust our own eyes. Mirages lead us from the path. The instinct to avoid shadows has been buried inside us since our Cro-Magnon days. Magicians and our eyes conspire to make fools of our perceptions. Colors fade and melt and blend from dawn to midnight. Out of the corners of our eyes, we see someone pass by fleetingly and turn to find no one’s there.

One reason our eyes are untrustworthy is that, combined with the wetware processor ...

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