What You See Ain't What's Out There
Learning to see. Sounds like a crazy phrase, right? Aren’t animals (including humans) born knowing how to see? And how could we ever know what is the case, since babies can’t communicate? Well, there are ways of finding answers without going down the Nazi medical experiments road, writes David Eagleman in his terrific book, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain . Like the case of Mike May, whose eyesight was restored at the age of 43. When the bandages were removed post-surgery: “He stared with utter puzzlement at the objects in front of him. His brain didn’t know what to make of the barrage of inputs… He was experiencing only uninterpretable sensations of edges and colors and lights. Although his eyes were functioning, he didn’t have vision .” Hmmm, but you’re not convinced yet. Eagleman continues: “Mike knew from a lifetime of moving down corridors that walls remain parallel, at arm’s length, the whole way down. So when his vision was restored, the concept of converg...