Optical Illusions

[InfiniteNow]

Anyway, I once read an article about using optical illusions to improve eyesight... Why do you guys think this may be?

Basically, it's like working out muscles, except with your vision it involves the eyes, the nerves carrying the signals, and the regions of the brain processing it. The harder it works, the stronger it becomes. Now, check out more optical illusions and it will be like doing curls with your eyeballs...

 

That is, or course, if the article you read had merit... :)

[HydrogenBond]

Sorry for departing from pure optical illusions, but these psycological illusions are the basis for so much of our normal perception within cultural reality. In my last post, I ragged on psychology. I don't believe what I said, but was using this ragging to show how one can shadow in a spatial image. I also provided some highlights to make the affect even more realistic. I don't like being manipulative but did it for teaching purposes.

 

The practical use of spatial images, shadowing and all, is to create an interactive dialogue between people. The shadowing helps to create a contrast for the opposing point of view, so dimly light highlights of the other point of view can come to light (consciousness). In the ideal situation, this is suppose to be a fluid process that leads to better understanding for all. It only becomes a problem if one or both sides try to carve spatial images into stone and sell it as a spatial integration.

 

As an example, both political parties express truth, but neither expresses the whole truth. The whole truth is a compromise between the two. The two party system is part of a natural creative process. Relative to these two 2.5-D balls, one is almost the negative of the other. If we were to superimpose the two 2.5-D balls, they would sort of cancel each other with respect to their shadowing and highlighting, making the image appear flat. In essense, the emotional side of the spatial image is neutralized leaving only 2-D reason. The paradox in culture is that if someone takes a moderate position in an attempt to find reasonable compromises, they are called wishy washy. If they take a one-sided point of view, they are rated higher because they appear to be displaying conviction and strength.

 

This social judgement is backwards in the sense that compromises are harder to create than one sided points of view. But it is correct in the sense, that the narrow point of view, by having an emotional valence associated with it, actually has an addtional dimension beyond a purely 2-D rational explanation. Maybe there needs to be a dual grading system in peoples minds, one for the rational educational value of compromise and one for the emotional entertainment value of one-sided thinking. They are both important since even shadowing allows the debate to occur within the minds of the rest of us, but compromise should be goal of the process.

 

I would like to add an additional art illusion also by Escher.

 

 

What this image symbolizes is the internal workings of the mind with one hemisphere helping to progress or regress the other, in a see-saw fashion. It sort of amounts to emotional/intutitive feelings, often associated with a spatial or 3-D perception giving one drive or conviction. This pushes us to define our position in rational reality. If we design our reasoning to support our convictions we reinforce the orginal emotional intuitive perception that is giving us our drive and convection. This spurs us on, leading to further investigation, etc..

 

If one is true to reason and truth, one may come to data or understanding that alters the way they feel. If one refutes their own theory, one may go from drive and conviction to depression. This emotional hand may induce a different rational perspective that may reinforce these feelings, etc.

 

If one is not govened by reason or truth (leftO but by pure emotional valance (right), the reasonable side may ignor opposing data and understanding so they can narrow down their focus to just what reinforces the euphoric intuitive feelings. If we look at the terrorists, their stronger hand is irrational/emotional and not reasonable. They are building a rational castle in sand so they can reinforce these euphoric and power filled feelings. Things that last need to be rational.

[Mercedes Benzene]

Well said HydrogenBond!

That was a very eloquent post!

 

But really: Escher is very successful at mimicking human emotions and other complexities through art...

It is very symbolic, yet at the same time, clearly displays its meaning. It is certainly strange how something so obscure-seeming to the human brain can instill such amazing feelings of reality.

[Drip Curl Magic]

http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.html

 

 

:(

[Mercedes Benzene]

OOOOOO. That castle one is probably one of my favorite optical illusions. Thanks for the link.

[HydrogenBond]

I would like to give a real example of a cultural illusion created by the hand of emotion, i.e, terrorism. Terrorism is real but the social reaction is out of touch with reason. The terrible bathtube is by far a worse risk to life and limb than all the terrorists combined. It is just as unpredictable and can occur anywhere in our country or anywhere in the world. Even terrorists are vulnerable.

 

All kidding aside. Terrorism is the art of instilling fear and uncertainty in a wide range of the population with very little resources. The terrorists do the dirty deeds and get the process working. They then hand it off to the media which amplifies the fear within culture. In other words, if a terrorist act was on page 10 and nothing more was said about it, the average person would let it go in one ear and out the other. But if the media harps on it to create the illusion this is as common as sunshine, they will increase the fear in the general population. In that respect the media plays an important role in terror, by amplifying the fear that the terrorists are trying to create. Terrorist do not have the resoources to create the same level of widespread fear that the media is able to generate.

 

Once the hand of fear takes hold, people begin to rationalize the fear. Culture gets all its experts together to brainstorm all the rational reasons that can justify the fear. The hand of fear create a hand of reason. Often the experts come up with new and improved scenarios the terrorist didn't even consider. The experts help the terrorists by spreading giving them a rational illusion of fear, uncertainy and risk, while tutoring the terrorists in new ways to create terror to they can reinforce the fear.

 

The way around terror is to allow security forces to worry about the fear. One then nips the general fear in the bud by creating rational perspective so the average citizens can see the reality of the situation. In other words, we start at the rational hand to get the correctly balanced emotional hand that is in touch with rational reality. This neutralise the affects of terror.

 

The media is in the entetainment business. That is why they usually present one-sided data. They are trying to manipulate emotion, just like in the movies, while offering a fictional reality for entertaniment purposes. It is not jus ttheir fault. Many people like horror movies. These people enjoy being scared. They will even pay to be scared. The cost of the admission to the collective fear is getting a little out of hand.

[Racoon]

I got this picture from Digg.

It is not animated.

 

trippy! :phones:

 

 

[paigetheoracle]

And here is another! :phones:

 

 

 

Count the black dots? How can I when they won't stand still!

[paigetheoracle]

OK, the site I got the STD images from is pretty cool...

which is where I found this

 

Optical illusions. Conflict between right brain/ left brain from visual stimulus.. Try this exercise! :phones:

 

 

This is true but that is because perception through verbal means, tells you to spell the word (left side function) whereas visual perception shows you what the colours are (right side function): The problem in this case isn't perception but the instructions given.

[paigetheoracle]

I am not trying to change the subject, but these optical illusions are a good example of right side of the brain altering our perception of rationally reality within the left side of the brain. If one is unaware of the process, one might assume the illusion affect is occurring in reality instead of only in the imagination.

 

The example I gave about many seeming useful but conflicting cosmology theories appears to show the affect of right side thinking mingling with left side. Cosmolgy is hard to prove so there is no easy way overcome the illusion affect and nobody to point out the affect. With most scientists unaware of the dual internal processing they assume all these are purely rational without an any optical illusion affect. The funny thing is, many of these cosmology theories can be supported by math. Math can be used to simulate the right-left hemiphere abberation.

 

The last posted image by raccoon is an optical illusion, but one could model the optical illusion of the gray circle shrinking with a math function. Just because one can simulate it with math does not imply it is reality. One could do a pixel count and prove that it does not move in reality even if the math supports the position that the eyes appear see. It only moves between the two cerebral hemisphere but not in purely rational reality.

 

This is part of the reason I have been a butt head. I can see through many of the optical illusions of science and was trying to show others. Most people seem unaware of the dual brain processing going on and how rational optical illusions are often assumed to reflect physical reality.

 

Let me give an historical example, when everyone thought the world was flat, that expectation was not just stored in the left hemisphere but also the right hemisphere. One could gather all types of rational data that appeared to prove the illusion. If someone said the world was roundm because everyone was seeing the optical illusion, that person would be labelled crazy because he is seeing something different. With optical illusions one has a rational reference that tells what is going on but one still can't shut it off. When it come to theory, most people don't have a solid reference nor can they totally shut off the imagination illusion.

 

I came across a similar idea myself, which made me realize why it is so difficult to change anybody's perception of anything. People will always find ways to prove they are right even when they are wrong and it is only reality that discloses the truth, when they test their theory against fact - gravity and the ability to fly (Those ideas that worked and those that didn't, for instance).

[paigetheoracle]

Your logic implies that someone who has had brain surgery, perhaps an entire hemisphere of their brain removed, would lose all the abilities associated with that hemisphere. This simply is not the case. While there are trends toward certain activities and abilities associated with each hemisphere, each will share some of the load. This "redundancy" in the system has evolved for all of us.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

Been on holiday so missed the start of this thread, so I hope you'll forgive the backtracking.

 

The above is true for senses (Blind people whose sight is restored cannot make sense of visual reality, initially) and coma victims. This is down to lack of input (exposure) which is part of the problem.

 

What you say above about the brain is true. Like a butterfly chrysallis, it rearranges its organization to make up for the loss/ deficit but that doesn't mean it works as perfectly as a whole brain does, despite the 'holographic' compensation mechanism. Functionally, the distribution of abilities across the brain occurs because like in an office that is the most efficient way of dealing with different types of input but it is arbitary not fixed.

[paigetheoracle]

OMFG. That is flipping amazing! I never realized anything like that before... but I just read that at the exact same pace as I would normally have read any other passage.

Incredible. :phones:

 

Could this explain why we're always able to correct other peoples spelling because we know what they mean? (Our arrogant attitude of we know how to spell but you don't, which if we take it to this level means intellectually it doesn't matter as we're able to translate the message anyway but it shows a defect in our character, morally i.e. fear on our part of appearing inferior, which we do anyway by our response).

[paigetheoracle]

Those were really good. Imagine if you were on acid whilst viewing that site :phones:

Anyway, I once read an article about using optical illusions to improve eyesight... Why do you guys think this may be?

Is it because you are subjecting your eyes to something that that don't usually see.

I would imagine that if anything, optical illusions would make your eyesight worse, because I know that after I look at some (especially the ones from the site that Lancaster mentioned), my eyes hurt, or I feel tired.

Any ideas?

 

How about that we become fixated on what we consider reality and end up with snow blindness? i.e. everything blurs into a single field of indistinct vision, which is why we need new glasses over time, to reawaken our clarity of field again. That do you?

[paigetheoracle]

I would like to give a real example of a cultural illusion created by the hand of emotion, i.e, terrorism. Terrorism is real but the social reaction is out of touch with reason. The terrible bathtube is by far a worse risk to life and limb than all the terrorists combined. It is just as unpredictable and can occur anywhere in our country or anywhere in the world. Even terrorists are vulnerable.

 

All kidding aside. Terrorism is the art of instilling fear and uncertainty in a wide range of the population with very little resources. The terrorists do the dirty deeds and get the process working. They then hand it off to the media which amplifies the fear within culture. In other words, if a terrorist act was on page 10 and nothing more was said about it, the average person would let it go in one ear and out the other. But if the media harps on it to create the illusion this is as common as sunshine, they will increase the fear in the general population. In that respect the media plays an important role in terror, by amplifying the fear that the terrorists are trying to create. Terrorist do not have the resoources to create the same level of widespread fear that the media is able to generate.

 

Once the hand of fear takes hold, people begin to rationalize the fear. Culture gets all its experts together to brainstorm all the rational reasons that can justify the fear. The hand of fear create a hand of reason. Often the experts come up with new and improved scenarios the terrorist didn't even consider. The experts help the terrorists by spreading giving them a rational illusion of fear, uncertainy and risk, while tutoring the terrorists in new ways to create terror to they can reinforce the fear.

 

The way around terror is to allow security forces to worry about the fear. One then nips the general fear in the bud by creating rational perspective so the average citizens can see the reality of the situation. In other words, we start at the rational hand to get the correctly balanced emotional hand that is in touch with rational reality. This neutralise the affects of terror.

 

The media is in the entetainment business. That is why they usually present one-sided data. They are trying to manipulate emotion, just like in the movies, while offering a fictional reality for entertaniment purposes. It is not jus ttheir fault. Many people like horror movies. These people enjoy being scared. They will even pay to be scared. The cost of the admission to the collective fear is getting a little out of hand.

 

People who like to be shook out of their cultural blinkers, will voluntarily watch horror films as you say but those who want to hold onto them will fight to avoid this happening. Like these illusions - some will leap at the opportunity to experience them, even if it makes them feel ill, whereas others will do their best to ban them as dangerous, perverse and non-American etc. because they want (even need?) to hold onto their cultural limitations.

[paigetheoracle]

I got this picture from Digg.

It is not animated.

 

trippy! :phones:

 

 

 

Pass me the sick bag, i don't feel so good....oh...oh..

[paigetheoracle]

Hydrogen Bond - victimless crime? Well the way I look at it is that something physical happened but the emotional response depends upon the maturity of the person it happened to (My fault, I forgot to lock the window/ walked through a dark park versus The whole world is against me/ I did nothing wrong).

[paigetheoracle]

Another weird thing when it comes to illusions is synaesthesia. This is where sensory wires get crossed and people feel things they've seen or see things they've heard - anybody, any experience or thoughts on this?