It’s almost time to get going on my Linguistics 102 class, ‘Language as Cognitive System’. It’s about brain, language, and perception. What better way to start than a fascinating optical illusion. Your eyes tell you that the big swirly lines are alternately blue and green. But your eyes are mistaken. They’re really the same colour. If you’re not convinced, pull down the file to your desktop and zoom in on it until the context is gone and the two colours merge into one.
Our visual system — indeed our human brains themselves — are pretty amazing devices that work pretty well most of the time. They work by showing us a view of reality not as it is, but close enough to be useful to us. Optical illusions exploit the bugs in our system.
This has a certain degree of relevance to me right now. I’m visiting with my family. They’re True Believers™, who rely on ‘spiritual experiences’ for evidence of their religious beliefs, which they are convinced cannot be wrong. This optical illusion is compelling evidence that our experiences, convincing though they seem, can be illusory.
25 June 2009 at 6:29 pm
As we like to say in programing, "Are you sure that is a bug, it may be a feature." 🙂
10 July 2009 at 5:00 am
Thanks for posting this. A great image. I have been thinking a lot lately about how our "perceptions" shape our "world", and just how selective our perception can be. What a fantastic illustration of this principle. Certainly applies to religious belief as you have mentioned, and indeed, all our other beliefs.
10 July 2009 at 5:03 am
And,…
hope you don't mind, but i have stolen the image for my facebook profile for a while.
I have sited your blog and the original site. Hope that's Ok.