Some are smeared, and some are spots

[mmcirvin]

Classic hallucinations explained as normal modes of a differential equation describing propagating excitations in the visual cortex. A couple of papers on the subject are linked here.

Comments

[ex-askesis860.livejournal.com]

Another recent related example: (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1111/is_1821_304/ai_82743069) "It turns out that one of the most productive assumptions of the last 40 years of biology was more complex than we thought, so scientists are dumb and OMG frankenfood!" I have trouble even listing all the reasons this article infuriates me, but it makes the same crazy left turn at the end that you ascribe to the Forteans.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

There are also a comment in that thread on Sean Carroll's site from someone who seems offended at the idea that hallucinations could be something other than contact with a deeper reality. (And, anyway, if the research is correct, in a sense they are: they're a direct perception of the action of some nifty mathematics within the structure of your own head. If Riemann was inspired by them, that makes perfect sense, because some of the math involved is exactly what Riemann was working on.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

In that connection, I've also often wondered when people working on the diffraction of light made the connection to the appearance of eyeball floaters.

To digress a step further...

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with the story of "N-Rays" and their discoverer, René Blondlot? (Skepdic (http://skepdic.com/blondlot.html)) I read about him in Paul Collins' book Banvard's Folly, an excellent book about 13 people who were hailed as geniuses for a time, but have since disappeared from history. Blondlot discovered and named N-Rays, which are light emanations from most things, but which can only be seen with almost-but-not-quite-direct viewing.

Blondlot's story is apparently most commonly described as a lesson in experimental design, because the N-Ray phenomenon fell apart in the face of a basic double-blind (well, let's say one-and-a-half, since Blondlot's assistant witnessed some manipulation of the apparatus) experiment, even though it was carried out without severe formality.

But I bring this up because Collins' book suggests that N-rays are an artifact of the cone/rod arrangement on the typical human retina, a compelling idea that I haven't seen on the web.

Re: To digress a step further...

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The N-Ray incident is famous in the annals of Science Gone Wrong, but I hadn't actually heard of anyone trying to figure out the neurophysiology of what was going on there.

Re: To digress a step further...

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Basically the cone/rod distribution over the retina isn't constant but, thanks to selection, has a ratio in the center of the retina, and hence your vision, that mixes color perception and magnitude perception. Around the edges, the ratio changes to favor magnitude perception, so you can detect movement in peripheral vision. One of the essentials of observing N-rays was to not quite look at them directly, and Collins or his source supposed that most likely, the same light might be perceived as brighter as it falls off-center in the eye. Innnnteresting.

Re: To digress a step further...

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Amateur astronomers use that trick to see barely visible objects such as comets with the unaided eye; faint-object perception is better with slightly averted vision than it is straight on, because there are fewer rods right in the fovea.

(Also, I think it's not so much color vs. magnitude perception as it is bright vs. faint light perception. The rods are monochrome sensors, but it's the cones that actually provide the brightness information in bright light; the rods are completely oversaturated under daylight conditions and don't do anything useful. There are people with a rare condition that makes their cones completely nonfunctional; they see in complete monochrome, unlike most color-blind people, and they also have to wear dark sunglasses during the day or they can't see at all.)

Re: To digress a step further...

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

ADDS BOOK TO CART, not that I have any time even for HPSc-related reading right now. See also: DeFillipo, Paul. "Sisyphus and the Stranger." Asimov's. Oct/Nov 2004. 54-63., which jwgh was kind enough to send me.

Also I wonder if Blondlot influenced Bruno Latour's pre-actor-network-theory philosophy about equipment and artifacts and naming.

[ex-askesis860.livejournal.com]

Duuude, you're directly experiencing part of the underlying structure of conscious experience - how much deeper do you want? A discussion for another time, but I get very frustrated with people who insist on the equivalent of hat tricks when they live in a universe full of genuine miracles.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's Barry Commoner. Remember when he ran for President?

I admit I didn't bother to read the whole thing. Does he realize that the phrase "central dogma' was sort of a joke?