Shortcomings of Perception

 

Imagine that you had only one of two kinds of sensory cells with which to gain knowledge about the reality of which you are a part. Further, lets imagine that one of the sensors detects light and the other one force as touch. And, finally imagine that these were ON-OFF sensors which detect only if light or force are present at the place you are located. What could you perceive as the reality of existence?

Imagine that the total of all reality is contain in the square area of the above diagram. In our thougth experiment you could sense only that part of the square within the Venn diagram for light and touch. If only light is sensed you will perceive on the sensation of reality in the light gray circle and nothing of reality outside it. . If only touch is sensed you perceive on the sensation of reality in the medium gray circle.above diagram. and nothing of reality outside it. If both light and touch are sensed you perceive on the sensation of reality in the dark gray area of the diagram and nothing of reality outside it.If you sense neither light nor dark you are like a rock and sense nothing and perceive nothing of reality whatsoever. 

So it is with only these two sensors your brain can perceive reality in three way: light grayness, medium grayness and dark grayness ... whatever the mind might make the perception of "grayness" to be. 

And, so what can the mind learn from this state of reality? Because the sensors are ON-OFF sensors the grayness is not an indication of scale. Two possibilities remain: (1) Reality has either two aspects that interact with each other to give the perception of three possible states (grayness) of reality, or (2) Reality has three aspects that do not interact to give the perception of three possible states (grayness) of reality.

Finally, what can we NOT know from the information at hand? 

1. Are there two or three aspects of reality?
2. Are there more than three aspects of reality?
3. What are the attributes of these sources of the sensory signals aspects that enabled them to be sensed?
   

In short, there are any number of aspects of reality for which we have no awareness because we lack sensors to supply sensory data about them. We are awash in a vast sea with in inadequate number of sensors .and sensor types to learn everything about our existence.

But does this really apply to us humans?  Yes. The light sensors in our eyes sense only the presence but not color.  Merkel's disks located on the outer layers of skin on your fingers are the sensors activated by forces applied to them to produce the sense of touch. Imagine how you would perceive reality if you had only one of each in your entire body. No physical touch no light and you perceive nothing of reality.

Alas we do perceive a great deal more of reality. We have four kinds of light sensors (1 kind of rod for presence of light and 3 kinds cones for the presence of light in the red, blue and green regions of the light spectum. And so it is with the presence and absence of white light plus the presence of red, green and blue light that we perceive the qualia of colors in our brain. 

But what is the reality of the perception of color? If we add all the "colors" of light in nature we get white light like that we see entering the prism here. But if we receive on "blue" and |red" light we have the sensation of the color |"purple" which does not exist in nature. It is purely a product of our physical brain as the sensation of the qualia of "purple". It is a perception created by the combination of aspects of reality. Similarly we can created the perception of the color "green" by the combination of "blue" and "yellow" light which is indistinguishable in our mind from that produced by light from the "green" section of the spectrum of light. So mare you perceive "green" light or the combination of "blue" and "yellow" when you have the sensation of the color green? A priori you cannot know. Your mind can create the  qualia of "green" in two entirely different ways from two entirely different states of reality. 

Perceptions are the great deceivers of reality and yet they provide all we can know of reality.