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
> 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
Some blind people can have a non-functional or mal-functioning visual cortex. Some people can see but not know that they can see cause their brain is ignoring or not processing the signals. If you ask someone like this what do they see in front of them, they say they can’t see. But if you flash a sudden light they might flinch. Or if an object is flying at them they will subconsciously avoid it.
Sometimes the optic nerve is not working. So the signal the cortex is receiving is *not* identical to a regular person with closed eyes. Having no signal is not the same as having signal of black.
>the signal it sends to the monitor is the same: nothing.
Using your HDMI cable qnalogy, imagine the monitor is actively receiving and displaying the signal of black versus having no signal. Blind is no signal. Seeing with eyes closed is monitor with signal to show black.
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