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I think if we consider what is the most complicated thing on the Planet, I would vote for the human brain.
It is actually hard to describe its functions let alone understand how all of this works in our head… What I know for sure though - human brains can play very interesting games with us!
The way how we preserve our reality usually depends on who does it and how they do it as well as 1000 micro-factors our brains consider before to giving us the “picture” whether of an object or whatsoever around us. It is considered that to do so our brain absorbs a lot of signals from the 5 senses we have as well as memories and the environment around us. This information is then interpreted in the brain and voila - “the reality” is delivered.
Just like in the famous Matrix
"If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain”
What is “real” then?
Is it really “real”? Can my brain make a mistake and interpret something wrong? The electric signal which is transmitted not correctly will then form my own “reality”?
A lot of people are actually surprised when realising that - yes, our brain makes a lot of mistakes. And the result of these mistakes is that we see things which don’t exist in reality.
The most famous
This one is a classic example of what we call colour illusions - the checker shadow illusion which was discovered and published in 1995 by professor Edward H. Adelson
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In fact the 2 squares A and B have the same colour but our brain interprets B as appearing to be a slightly brighter than A.
If you decide to check it you will find out it is true. The following image illustrates it perfectly:
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Still not convinced - here is a video reconstruction of the same experiment in real time with real people and objects:
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Find differences which does not exist
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In his series Homage to the Square Josef Albers performed several examples of the paintings with use of the same colours but placed in different order without borders in between to illustrate the same effect. Our brain confuses us telling that the colours on the 2 paintings are different when in reality they are not.
Mach bands
This is another type of colour illusion named after the physicist Ernst Mach who noticed that the human visual system would perceive the slightly different shades of grey as more intense colour as soon as they touch. In other words the darker part will be consider more darker and the higher part will be considered falsely brighter.
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Which is better illustrated here:
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The mystery dress…
If you think colour illusions exist only inside the scientific world you are mistaken. In 2015 it was a huge public sensation which was caused by a simple question:
What is the colour of the dress?
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Almost half of the people saw it blue and black while the other part is white and gold… Even the celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga were making comments but no one seemed to agree as the different people were seeing different colours when in fact the dress was blue and black.
Since the image went viral a lot of actual studies were performed and one of the explanation the scientists found is that it appears differently under 1) different light patterns and 2) different people’s brains.
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Blue or green?
There are different variations of this one but the forms don’t make a difference.
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They are all about one thing - you see 4 colours when in fact they are only 3!! Don’t believe me? Just come closer to the monitor and see for yourself!
or check what is happening when the pink colour is removed
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And last but not least
One of the beautiful metamorphoses that you can see when it comes to us seeing the colours… Just concentrate on the centre of the picture and see what is going to happen…
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It may take some longer than others (took me about 10 seconds of just looking at the central point in the picture), but the colours will actually vanish leaving us with just the white page!
SO, now is the time for the question - how much of the world that we see is real? Or it is just a game that our brain plays with us?
With love,
Sasha Genji
PS: This is the first article in the series so if you want to go with me and explore more - upvote and follow! %))
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Very nice and well written post! I touched the same topic in my series from a different view angle, if you want check it out on my profile, it would be nice to have your feedback :-) Anyway, followed you because I am waiting for the next posts of your series!
Ben, hey. Thank you for reading and taking time commenting it. I really appreciate it. As you wrote in your wonderful post - the human brain is "is the most complicated machine known to mankind" (c)bendelgreco. I think that is 100% right. It interests me to study how it functions and find very intresting facts and like you I like writing about it as I also go deeper in my own understanding on the topic I really love! I am very happy I found a brain mate%)) I follow you as well to see how your series of The Mechanics of understanding are going to continue. And as always for the post I really like the nice poster%)) Hope you like it%))
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NOTHING IS REAL. AAAAH
Very interesting! You put a lot into this and it shows...I am impressed! Upvoted and already following ;) Cannot wait for more!
Currently working on the next one%) Apart of art and communication with people I am really passionate about human brain%) And still need to publish my Muladhara chakra version I promised%)) Will work on it and I hope you do not mind if I put your picture as well in my post as it was part of the story of my painting and I do not want to miss it. Of course with attributing it to the awesome author%)
of course you can! I am honored :) I look forward to more!