Nobody is deceiving you. Your brain is guessing, and the guess is usually right.
Perception is a prediction, not a recording. Illusions are what a very good shortcut looks like when you catch it out.
-
01
Your eyes lie to you on purpose
Perception is not a recording. It is a running guess about what is out there, and illusions are what a very good guess looks like when you catch it out.
6 min
-
02
Colour is not a property of the world
The same grey looks light or dark depending on what is around it. That is not a defect — it is the mechanism that lets you recognise a white shirt at midnight.
6 min
-
03
The hole in your eye you have never noticed
Each retina has a patch with no receptors at all. You have never seen the gap, because the gap is filled in with a guess.
5 min
-
04
Looking at it is not the same as seeing it
People miss an actor in a gorilla suit walking through the middle of a scene they are watching closely. Attention is a spotlight, and everything outside it is effectively invisible.
6 min