i understand the mechanics that we have been discussing about the photorecpetors and eye function, but i still haven't fit together exactly HOW we see. it is confusing to think that what we see everyday is simply light intensities that our photoreceptors detect. i have trouble attributing the shape of a circle to various light intensities. images on our retinas are just results of permeability changes on the photoreceptors from the light intensity outside. even though i know that this happens because i particpated in the experiment in class, i find it difficult to accept that our nervous system fills in the points where there are no photoreceptors on our retina. in other words, because we aren't AWARE of this happening, our sense of reality isn't really reality!! also, the idea of lateral inhibiton is logical, but, at the same time, it provides evidence that what we see is not always what is true. for example, our eyes fill in lines in black and white spaces when lines don't really exist. it is difficult to know when this occurs if we aren't aware of it--it happens and we think we're seeing something that isn't really there. the whole lateral inhibiton idea leaves alot for the eye to choose as what it belives is reality. in calss we said that inhibition and excitation will cancel each other out--therefore, this is not necessarily an accurate representation of intensity. this certainly leads me to wonder when we see what we see, what are we REALLY looking at versus what our eye reports to us. no two eyes will ever receive the EXACT light intensities, nor will they have identical photoreceptors and retinas so now two people can accurately compare their own realities--this gets awfully confusing. at any rate, i am anxious to piece together just how these intensities on our photoreceptors and retina get transformed into images, colors, and textures. also, i thought that the "image" on the retina is upside down--when does that get fli-flopped? although the question of "reality" will never be answered fully, we can probe the issue of seeing more deeply (and i know we are) so as to undersatnd the mechanics of the eye and the job it carries out for us to see what we see everyday. i was also hoping we oculd discuss the problems assocaited with various blindnesses.....maybe that can be something for in-class discussion.

We'll get to at least some blindnesses. In the meanwhile, its worth noticing one you seem to be shedding. Yes, what the nervous system is doing is a little disorienting when one first encounters it. And yes, it raises some interesting questions about "reality". It also, as you say, helps to better understand "reality" (which, of course, it itself is), and encourages one to be continually curious, since you never know. That ok? PG