P3D Re: vertical vision

[Steve Berezin <sbere@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ronald Beck wrote:
> 
> > >Okay, here's an odd little question, but one y'all might find
> > enjoyable:
> > >How would one's vision be different if one's eyes were stacked
> > VERTICALLY
> > >rather than being arranged horizontally on one's face?
> 
> On a somewhat related topic, I was reading something my son received
> about animals.  They had two classifications, animals that feed and
> animals that are food.  The interesting distinction is that animals that
> feed have their eyes in the front of their head (lions, tigers, bears,
> bobcats, etc...) and that animals that are food have their eyes on the
> side of their heads (chickens, deer, etc...).  The theory is that the
> feeders can better see 3D to hunt their prey while the food need to see
> in a wider arc around them to alert them to prowlers.

Not to get too far off the subject but when I was studying primatology
in college one of the theories was that primates developed, or using
Darwinian terms ,"were selected for",  stereo vision to better survive
in the trees.  That is, for better accuracy in moving branch to branch.
A side development was the increase in size of the cerebral cortex which
processes spatial information.  The proponents of this theory felt that
the increase in the cortex is what allowed for primates to later develop
what would be called 'smarts', along with the opposable thumb, as they
'developed' into humans  :-)

Steve Berezin
mailto:sbere@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/2404/stereolinks.html


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