Vision is not perception!

Perception is a product of the mind and brain, not the eyes.

The eye is nothing more than optical lens and an image detector, the retina.
After that, what peoples brains do with the image is a rather individualistic process.
ight falls on its photoreceptors, which then transmit electrical signals to a thin sheet of
neurons that immediately begins to transform the pristine image that has fallen on the retina.
!ven before these signals leave the eye, they have already been changed in a way that is no
longer an e"act representation of the world. the information travels down the optic nerve to
the thalamus and is then transmitted to the corte", where a #mental image is constructed.
$urthermore, the eye concentrates more on the centre of the image and misses many details at
the periphery of the view.
The eyes constantly move, scanning the scene and the brain fills in the gaps by ma%ing
guesses, based on your memory and past e"periences, constructing the mental image.
&owever, the brain sometimes ma%es incorrect assumptions about what it is seeing.
As an e"ample, imagine a waterfall or crashing waves with foam and droplets thrown up in the
air. 'ost people assume that a crisp, sharp picture of the droplets is #reality, the #true
representation of the world, while a blurry, fu((y, and out)of)focus appearance is considered
#un)real, a camera effect, achieved by using slow shutter speeds. *ut the human eye, as
mentioned above, constantly scans the scene and records snapshots of appro"imately +,-. of a
second.
This time span, as with cameras, is by far not fast enough to record fast moving ob/ects crisp, to
free(e action. &ere is where our perception comes into play, where the brain constructs the
mental image. 0e only #thin% that we see sharp and crisp droplets, based on pictures we have
seen in the past, ta%en with cameras set to +,+... of a second or faster, imprinted into our
memory. 1t is the mental image, #seen or constructed by the brain, only because we loo%ed at
this %ind of imagery in the past ) a phenomenon not possible before the invention of
photography. 1n addition, the commonly accepted concept of reality was changed.
0e ta%e for granted that our perceptions of the world are real, but they are really specters of our
imagination, nothing more than biological and electrical rumblings that we believe to be real.
0hat we call #reality and believe to be a common entity, is really only our personal one, based
on our personal e"periences, upbringing, gender, educationetc, amongst the other 2 billion
realities.
The eye transmits raw information, but by the time you become aware of it, your brain has
processed the information in many ways, creating a mental image that reaches your
consciousness.
And finally, perception 3 what we thin% we see, the #minds eye 3 is not only the reason why
people #see things differently, but is also one of the main reason they react differently, have
different personalities, approach problems and challenges differently.
4nli%e in anti5uated $reudian notions, we %now now that the decisions humans ma%e can be
traced to the firing patterns of neurons made in specific parts of the brain. This new approach is
%nown as #neuroeconomics.
1t puts away with the idea of 'ind)*ody 6ualism that separates human decision ma%ing from
the messiness of the physical body, as if the mind e"ists separately from our bodies.
7euroeconomics was born out of the reali(ation that the physical wor%ings of the brain influence
the way we ma%e decisions. These discoveries ma%e us understand human behavior and why
some people seem to march to a different drumbeat. Perception is one of the main reasons,
besides #$ear 8esponse and #9ocial 1ntelligence, for the e"istence of the #1conoclast.
The iconoclast :;ree%< destroyer of icons= is a person who does something that others say cant
be done. >onsciously or not, he ac%nowledges the fact that creativity is also a part of
destruction. To create something new, you also have to tear down conventional ways of
thin%ing. The iconoclast creates new opportunities in any area, from artistic e"pression to
technology to business.
&e embodies traits of creativity and innovation that are not easily accomplished by committee.
&e eschews authority and convention. &e thumbs his nose at rules?

Prof. ;regory *erns, 6istinguished >hair of
7euroeconomics, !mory 4niversity
Your joys and sorrows,
your memories and your ambitions,
your sense of personal identity and free will
are in fact no more than the behavior of
a vast assembly of nerve cells,
associated molecules and their
electrical and chemical signals.
$rancis >ric%
co)discoverer of 67A
the most important biologist of our time
:by the way< &ippocrates said the same in @.. *>=