It's easy if you visualize

A recent thought that came to my mind is how much we depend on sight to depict the world around us. Since so much of what we understand comes from visualization and sight, it is easy to forget to ask why we can see the objects around us and understand spaciality.

Ok... so what's the big deal? It's light. But if you really take a moment to think about the properties of light, it is easy to see how misleading vision can really be. Could you imagine if everything that you saw around you were not actually there? I think you could... but in a different context.

Perhaps if you were looking through water or something, objects wouldn't be exactly where they appear to be. Basically, the only thing that constitutes vision is the pattern of photons entering your eyes. It doesn't matter where they came from, it only matters how they are arranged. Therefore, the entire projection of your computer screen could be interpreted in your brain entirely differently than what is actually appearing.

I guess what scares me is that I'm depending on the fact that light travels the linear path that it takes to get to my eyes. So really, I have no clue what's really around me other than what is given to me by light bouncing off of the objects in my room. I mean, think about it... anything could be going on around you right now, but all you know is that the photons tell you that everything looks like you're just sitting in your room. I almost feel like I'm... in the dark... ironically.

I mean... if you don't understand why this amazes me, try to imagine a 3-dimensional object. What comes to mind? You probably see the part of the object that is facing you, and there is a bright smear on the surface where the light source is reflecting into your eyes. But the object has depth that you can't visualize... at least in one snapshot. One strategy that we've come up with is the evolution of two eyes. Observing from two different sources has allowed us to perform trigonometric calculations in order to figure out how far away things are. Thus, with this new ability, we are able to visualize depth. Another strategy is analysis of the object as it moves or rotates. When you pick up an object that you've never seen before, you move it around, flip it over, look at all sides of it... what this does is allows your brain to do a bunch of calculations that integrate a series of two dimensional snapshots into a three dimensional picture.

But all of this is based on what actually enters your eye. Don't forget that light has a finite speed so distant planets and stars appear to be doing stuff that they actually did hours, days, or years ago. I mean... the thought that what is going around me could be different than what I'm seeing is almost enough to drive me insane. It makes me feel like I'm unable to trust my interpretation of my surroundings.