David Eagleman on why reality is an illusion

[semente]

Great interview on the BBC's "Life Scientific" radio programme this morning:

 

 

David Eagleman on why reality is an illusion

 

Literature student turned neuroscientist, Prof David Eagleman, tells Jim Al-Khalili about his research on human perception and the wristband he created that enables deaf people to hear through their skin.

Everything we see, taste, smell, touch and hear is created by a set of electro-chemical impulses in the dark recesses of our brain.

Our brains look for patterns in these signals and attach meaning to them.

So in future perhaps we could learn to ‘feel’ fluctuations in the stock market, see in infra-red or echo-locate like bats?

Each brain creates its own unique truth and David believes, there are no real limits to what we humans can perceive.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zlqc

 

[Kimo]

6 hours ago, semente said:

Great interview on the BBC's "Life Scientific" radio programme this morning:

 

 

David Eagleman on why reality is an illusion

 

Literature student turned neuroscientist, Prof David Eagleman, tells Jim Al-Khalili about his research on human perception and the wristband he created that enables deaf people to hear through their skin.

Everything we see, taste, smell, touch and hear is created by a set of electro-chemical impulses in the dark recesses of our brain.

Our brains look for patterns in these signals and attach meaning to them.

So in future perhaps we could learn to ‘feel’ fluctuations in the stock market, see in infra-red or echo-locate like bats?

Each brain creates its own unique truth and David believes, there are no real limits to what we humans can perceive.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zlqc

 

 

I am going to run this by my psychic.

[MarkusBarkus]

[Jud]

Eagleman had a series on the Public Broadcasting System here in the US that was excellent, all about different aspects of human brain function.  (One particularly interesting segment showed how magicians direct attention away from where the trick is actually happening.)  I've posted a short segment from that program many times in the forums, and here it is again.  If you think of color as frequency and brightness as amplitude, the potential applicability to audio becomes more evident, I think: It may not always be the most measurably accurate reproduction that creates the most believable illusion of reality.

 

https://www.pbs.org/video/brain-david-eagleman-episode-1-clip-1/

[GregWormald]

Our perception of reality can change—as he shows. Sometimes your brain wins, sometimes reality wins.

 

Walk in front of an oncoming car you didn't see and your perception of reality will lose—suddenly.

[opus101]

Love his 150ft free-fall experiment. And he got it past the ethics committee. Respect.

[firedog]

8 hours ago, Jud said:

Eagleman had a series on the Public Broadcasting System here in the US that was excellent, all about different aspects of human brain function.  (One particularly interesting segment showed how magicians direct attention away from where the trick is actually happening.)  I've posted a short segment from that program many times in the forums, and here it is again.  If you think of color as frequency and brightness as amplitude, the potential applicability to audio becomes more evident, I think: It may not always be the most measurably accurate reproduction that creates the most believable illusion of reality.

 

https://www.pbs.org/video/brain-david-eagleman-episode-1-clip-1/

Yes, stuff like this and the McGurk effect show us just how inaccurate our senses can be. That's why I'm not in "my ears tell me all I need to know" camp.

Your ears might, but your brain doesn't. 

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

9 hours ago, Jud said:

Eagleman had a series on the Public Broadcasting System here in the US that was excellent, all about different aspects of human brain function.  (One particularly interesting segment showed how magicians direct attention away from where the trick is actually happening.)  I've posted a short segment from that program many times in the forums, and here it is again.  If you think of color as frequency and brightness as amplitude, the potential applicability to audio becomes more evident, I think: It may not always be the most measurably accurate reproduction that creates the most believable illusion of reality.

 

https://www.pbs.org/video/brain-david-eagleman-episode-1-clip-1/

 

All participants will perceive the same phenomenon, which is the result of how color is perceived. Color has no "reality" outside of our perception, so there is no sense in speaking of an "illusion". 

 

Eagleman's examples are fun, but I would be careful in the conclusions that can be drawn from them. 

[Jud]

7 hours ago, hopkins said:

 

All participants will perceive the same phenomenon, which is the result of how color is perceived. Color has no "reality" outside of our perception, so there is no sense in speaking of an "illusion". 

 

Eagleman's examples are fun, but I would be careful in the conclusions that can be drawn from them. 

 

If you'd like something specifically from the audio area, there is this:

 

https://deutsch.ucsd.edu/psychology/pages.php?i=201

 

And regarding "all participants will perceive the same phenomenon," not so in the case of these audio demonstrations:

 

"Many of them show that people can differ strikingly in the way they hear very simple musical patterns."

[feelingears]

I don't know if you all would agree there's something of this psychological "misdirection" happening with circuit design and how signal through one circuit is more or less "misdirected" as it comes out the transducer, but I sort of feel (best I can do) that this is what I'm hearing when comparing my long time separates system with an integrated amp I have on hand. One system is class A/B and the other more class A.

 

One seems to present the recording more "evenly" for lack of a better word, while the other presents certain tones or frequencies (can't quite decide if I can tell which) more prominently so that you don't quite hear the other tones/shades/harmonics you hear on the other system. A simple example is vocalists singing in harmony (this is pop and classic rock and R&B stuff)–one system presents the harmonies more more clearly than the other. Maybe one system is timbrally "better" than the other? This effect happens with cymbals as well.

 

Anyway, just a thought about electronics and hearing.