do you see a blind spot, right now? no, you probably don't. Close one eye! there's now no way for the other eye to fill in the gaps. Still, no blind spot... Your visual system is lying, and making up content it thinks is there. You literally cannot see what you think you see.
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she additionally pointed out that your phone's selfie-mode is NOT a mirror, and it has a slight delay, so you can see your eyes moving in it.
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And for fun, here's wikipedia's example of the blindspot. Stare at L with only your left eye, adjust the distance, and the R will disappear. You don't see "nothing" or "black", you see the background, because you expect to.pic.twitter.com/NBN485EOvC
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This is why laser damage your retina can be so insidious. Your visual system already can hide "holes" in your vision, what's one more to hide? So you damage a small spot of your retina and your visual system covers it up.
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but since you didn't go "WELL THAT WAS TERRIBLE I BETTER TAKE BETTER CARE OF MY EYES" and stop fucking with lasers, you keep doing it eventually you accumulate so much damage that your visual system simply cannot manage hiding it all and your vision rapidly degrades.
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the other reason lasers are so dangerous is that they don't necessarily trigger the same responses as regular incoherent light. your pupil reflex is only triggered by some special cells in the center of your eye, so an off-center laser might not cause your iris to contract
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and infrared laser light is just as dangerous as visible laser light, but can't trigger your blink reflex. Your eyes automatically close when exposed to bright light, but they can't detect infrared light. Despite not seeing it, it still causes damage.
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Anyway, back on how amazing and crazy your vision is: There was an experiment back in 1890 where someone wore glasses made with mirrors in them to flip their vision. After about 8 days, they could see just fine with them on. Their vision system had started "flipping" the image.
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(I say flipping in quotes because it's not as simple as it started showing the pixels at the top row on the bottom row, cause our vision doesn't work like that) It only took them a few hours to get back to normal after taking these glasses off, though.
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The last really fun part about this flipping experiment: your eyes already do it. Based on how our vision is wired, we should be seeing everything upside down. We don't, but only because our visual system has had our whole life to adapt to this.
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BTW, since a few people have brought it up: There's a great sci-fi novel by Peter Watts called Blindsight. In it humans encounter an alien race they call Scramblers, who can move very fast and precisely, and they exploit saccades.
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because if they only move during saccades, we never see them moving. and since so much of our vision is based on just filling in what we think is there, if they stay out of the direct center of our vision, we'll just visually fill them in, like they were never there.
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Check it out if you're into hard SF stories of first contact. It's got some really neat ideas about human vision, very unique aliens, the nature of conciousness, the future of humanity in the face of perfect VR, and vampires. (Really, it has "vampires", while still being hard-SF)
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BTW, remember how I said "vertebrate eyes" up there? Guess who has eyes which are wired forwards instead of backwards (no have no blindspot), have an internal lens, and can even see polarization of light? our good friends the Cephalopods!pic.twitter.com/SOMT5CB2SY
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Which makes me wonder how on Earth could comedian Marujita Díaz practice her "moving eyes" gagpic.twitter.com/sol2TkJHX0
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So that’s why I can’t see my eyes wobbling in the mirror. (I have nystagmus, which causes my eyes to wobble.) I just checked + I can see them wobble via my phone’s front camera
I took this video whilst also looking in a mirror; my eye appeared still in the mirror. Weird!pic.twitter.com/H1sOISmhlfThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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How could you see your eyes move in any case? You need to be looking at your eyes in the mirror to see your eyes; when you move your eyes you can't see your eyes until they're pointed at your eyes, ie finished moving
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Weird, if you move your eyes, nothing, but if you turn your head and look straight they move around nice and smooth. The muscles still have to move your eyes to keep them focused on the same spot...
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Fun addition to this that if you can make one of your eyes move independently of the other you can see it move in a mirror hahaha. I actually learned how to do that trying to see my eyes move in a mirror.
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My left eye turned in as a kid, but after corrective surgery I learned how to do it on command. When hearing about this first I tested it that way. Cool as hell innit?
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