Please read my post before commenting.
I’ve heard the elbow thing and the “what do you see behind you” thing a hundred times.
My thought process is that the optic nerve is essentially an HDMI cable. Whether it is connected to a computer that is turned off (a closed eye, if you will) or just completely disconnected (suppose you are missing an eye or something), the signal it sends to the monitor is the same: nothing.
The “monitor”, the visual cortex, as far as I understand, just constantly processes what the optic nerve sends. So if blind people don’t lack a visual cortex, and the signal that cortex receives from the optic nerve is identical to that of a regular person seeing zero light (assume closing your eyes means 0 light, disregarding light seeping through eyelids and whatnot), how can you say that blind people see nothing while we see black?
In: Biology
I think you’re thinking along the right lines, but filling in some blind spots (pun intended) in your knowledge with some good but flawed guesses.
If you’d let me explain my view on it (again, pun intended):
I have Multiple Sclerosis. Im not a “blind person” but i am “blind” in one eye. One of MS’ wonderful characteristics is that it interferes with certain nerves, and one of the cards I was dealt is that I have bouts of Optic Neuritis.
To continue your analogy, my HDMI cable was damaged in a fire. The plastic shroud melted and some of the copper cable inside got damaged too.
The capability of the human body and brain is a remarkable thing, and I’ve repaired the burnt cable by wrapping it up in insulation tape (replacing the cable is not an option)
Although it’s a pretty good fix, I’ve left some gaps in the insulation tape and as a result there’s still some copper exposed. When different parts of my brain get used, (heat, stress, stimulation) then those bits swell and find thier way into the gaps in my subpar repair job.
The effect this has on my AV system is that the HDMI cable suffers a lot of interference. The source and the processor are working fine but the cabling causes data transfer issues. Sometimes the quality is 1080p, but sometimes it’s like looking through a sheet of tracing paper. Light and colour gets transmitted but resolution and focus is miles off what it should be.
TLDR: Im blind in one eye. I don’t see “Black” because my nerves make the best of the hand they’re dealt. It’s not “Black” but it’s nowhere near “vision”
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