Optical Illusions are "Brain Failures"
Human perception is rife with ways of getting things wrong. We don't like to admit it, because we have a high opinion of our biology, but it's true. Here's an example: We've all seen drawings that create optical illusions. They're lots of fun, but they should actually be called "brain failures." That's what's happening—a failure of human perception. Show us a few clever drawings, and our brains can't figure out what's going on. We're poor data-taking devices. That's why we have science; that's why we have machines. Machines don't care what side of the bed they woke up on in the morning; they don't care what they said to their spouses that day; they don't care whether they had their morning caffeine. They're emotion-free data-takers. That's what they do.
Notes:
They demonstrate how imperfect our senses are and why we need science and scientific instruments to show us the way.
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Illusion (0.955223): dbpedia | freebase
Psychology (0.798935): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Perception (0.688605): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Sense (0.667325): dbpedia | freebase
Science (0.613394): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Mind (0.611498): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Gestalt psychology (0.581647): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Scientific method (0.575860): dbpedia | freebase
Space ChroniclesSchemas
Science Reveals the World Beyond Our Senses
Microscopes, X-Rays, Telescopes, and other instruments reveal the hidden world we cannot see with our five senses. Science increases what we can know beyond our physical limitations.
