The patience of The Wild always impresses me.
Especially when waiting for a meal.
I’ve seen creatures from the very small to the very large become quiet, become so still they are whispers against the wind…
then move with a ferocity and tenacity which is terrifying.
One of my proudest (read “most vain”) moments was realizing I could move faster than a wild animal could follow.
Part of which came from realizing what types of motion their eyes were designed to capture, something which goes back to my studies of Jerome Lettvin’s Frog’s Eye Concept, a fascinating discovery probably lost in time (MIT 1959 What the Frog’s Eyes Tells the Frog’s Brain).
Basically, we see what we’re trained to see.
In some ways, this is obvious. A trained surgeon sees disease where untrained people don’t, a trained plumber sees a leak in the making where the untrained see a sweating pipe.
Take this a step further and we learn our training affects our decision making; the brain changes incoming sensory data to fit expectations, likewise, our expectations cause us to only perceive certain data.
Adds a whole new level to Believing is Seeing, doesn’t it?
I make use of Dr. Lettvin’s Frog’s Eye Concept in The Inheritors
The Librarian closed the hatch. She reached over and opened it again. “Bertrand?”
The Librarian’s pale, hairless, babe-like head and pulsing eyes poked up through again. “Yes, Resa?”
“You can see after images, can’t you, when something’s hot enough?”
“Yes, Resa.”
“Can you see anything here?”
“No, Resa.”
“Are you sure? I think…I thought…someone was here, something which produced enough heat to keep me warm in the night.”
“No, Resa. Who do you think it was?”
She hesitated. “I thought it was the Christian Devil.”
“I would not be able to see it, real or not, Resa.”
Resa focused on Bertrand’s eyes, looking to see if the Librarian joked or not. “What do you mean, you wouldn’t be able to see him, real or not?”
“That creature’s origins are from a belief system different than our own. It cannot exist for us because we have no reason for it to exist.”
She nodded. “Yes, of course. You wouldn’t react to him. You have different mythical systems and no meme to contain it. The Frog’s Eye Concept.”
“Dr. Jerome Lettvin. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1959. “What the Frog’s Eye Tells the Frog’s Brain.”
As noted earlier, Believing is Seeing.
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