P3D vertical 3D, etc.

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

>Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:31:11 -0600
>From: aifxtony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Alderson)

>However, I think the world would probably be very different for us to have
>vertically displaced eyes. Horizontal displacement has independently
>evolved several times on earth, I'm not aware of any creature with
>vertically displaced eyes. 

The flounder? :-)

>But consider a related question: how would the world look if we saw in some
>other way than visible light? Some kind of three dimensional perception
>would still be useful. What if we 'saw' with sonar? Or heat? Or some other
>part of the electromagnetic spectrum? How does the world look to an ant,
>that "sees" mainly by feel and smell?

People can do that too. What does your tongue tell you about the shape of
the inside of your mouth? One time I was involved in a party game where
a number of objects are placed in a bag, and you try to guess what they are
just by feeling them. It's amazing how the three-dimensional shapes come
to mind.

I remember a reference to a research article, describing whether blind
people use the visual centers of their brains, and whether or not this
was a function of whether they had been born blind, but I don't remember
the details at the moment.

A very thought-provoking post!

John R


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