Yesterday night, after I finished my previous blog post at 1:45 a.m., I went to the Hudson river piers to see what the river looks at night. Of course, Manhattan is mostly safe at any time of day at night, and there were cars and considerable amount of light, but still I had to walk near construction objects or on the bicycle track that goes along the river sometimes without any people in sight and, in the latter case, with bushes between me and the cars.
As usual, I cannot tell, where I was using actual binocular vision, and where I primarily used both sides of the visual cortex working together, but even one eye would have sufficed --- of course, both sides of the visual cortex receive input from each eye, and each binocular experience educates binocular neurons that can later work even with one eye open. Maybe even some compensation would have sufficed, with some previous binocular experience. Anyway, here is what I observed.
1. Survival mechanisms that are used with binocular vision are entirely different from those that I used with uniocular vision.
2. I have no experience using survival mechanisms with binocular vision
3. Imperfections of my binocular vision have decreased the efficiency of binocular survival mechanisms. For example, my eyes are not converging very well, and my right eye is much weaker so it sees blur at the distance. Therefore, when my eyes switched back and forth, I sometimes felt I detected movement while there was none. I also had to consciously switch to using the better (left) eye as dominant, even though the right one (on the overextended side) often wanted to lead.
4. Despite points 2 and 3, binocular survival mechanisms are dramatically more efficient than the compensations I have previously used. In fact, I found out that the best thing I could do was to inhibit all my previous visual habits for survival, since they got in the way of using the binocular vision, however new and imperfect.
5. Elaborating on the point 4 above, my own binocular vision taught me about a new kind of attention. In order to pay attention in the new sense I merely had to stay calm and present and try to not get distracted by any thoughts. Information was literally falling on me without me asking for it, even when I was not so concentrated. In fact, however queer it may sound, I was noticing things even when I was not paying attention. The old way of paying attention is: remaining present and alert, and noticing sounds and other input, calmly examine all suspicious areas in the visual input.The problem with this strategy is that, in addition to being inefficient, it forces you to change your body language (that is, constantly look around), and that itself can get you in trouble, so the adaptation that I used back in Russia when I was really afraid of something was: to lose some sensory input in order to keep the body language (posture, way of walking) that projects confidence.
Here are some specific survival advantages that I found:
1. Understanding the geometry of the surroundings is very important so, for example, you know where to run if something happens, and you see where the danger can be. This is particularly important if the place is totally new and you haven't seen any such places before - say, if you go to an abandoned factory, - if you haven't seen any factories, you may not detect the geometry even if you had had a binocular experience for many years, but, for example, lost the vision in one eye.
2. Movement detection is essential. It had some importance in my past survival skills too, but still previously I scanned for movement. That is, I looked at specific parts of the visual input and checked if there was any movement there. Now I can detect movement even in the peripheral vision, that is, with one eye only, presumably because binocular experience has taught the brain about movement and movement detection. Also, if you understand the geometry of the space, movement detection is so much easier, because the brain already expects where the movement will take place - for example, the brain expects and is subconsciously looking for movement in the bushes or on the surface on the road. If the brain does not subconsciously understand the geometry of the surroundings, it will look for movement everywhere, thus being less efficient, or you will have to consciously direct it to look at the road. Then, of course, you will only detect movement on the road, and overall you are likely to overfocus, stop hearing sounds, and even start projecting wrong body language.
3. When you actually meet someone, it is very important to detect their binocular focus. Are they focused at all, or is it just a drunkard wandering aimlessly? Is the stranger looking directly at you?
Binocular focus on the potential source of trouble and binocular summation allow you to quickly identify if the stranger or the group of strangers seems dangerous or not; it is much easier to pick up their body language as well as simpler things such as the number of people, how far they are, and where they are going.
4. Stereopsis allows to look in the bushes. This is related to understanding geometry, but I consider it a separate advantage.
5. Understanding other binocular beings can allow you to survive more efficiently - for example, it is helpful to understand that other human beings are hardwired to detect movement. Of course, this only works if you are dealing with a binocular being. If you are attacked by a stereoblind person and you are trying to distract their attention by some common trick that relies on shifting their focus, you will probably fail.
6. Natural highlighting of what you are looking at (what's in the focus) helps to see in the dark.The lights of the cars do not blind you as long as you are not looking at them. Of course, if you do look at any source of bright light, this will blind a person with binocular vision much more than a person who had never had binocular vision, because the bright light will be in the focus, whether it is the focus of the eyes (with true binocular vision), or simply the focus of the mind/brain (with binocular experience). In fact, if you are looking with one eye, all of your binocular neurons will still get stimulated. Say, for example, that you have 100 neurons for your eyes (just to make the numbers easier), of which 50 are binocular, and 50 uniocular - 25 for each eye. If you close one eye, 75 will receive input from the other eyes. On the other hand, if all your neurons are uniocular and one eye is entirely suppressed, only 50 neurons will receive input. Of course, if both eyes are open, then all 100 neurons will receive input, of which 50 binocular neurons will receive a stronger signal because it would be coming from both eyes.
7. Whether you choose fight or flight, the natural eye-body connection will help you.
8. If you are falling asleep, binocular vision will help you stay awake. It is much easier to get underfocused while seeing a "flat picture".
As usual, I cannot tell, where I was using actual binocular vision, and where I primarily used both sides of the visual cortex working together, but even one eye would have sufficed --- of course, both sides of the visual cortex receive input from each eye, and each binocular experience educates binocular neurons that can later work even with one eye open. Maybe even some compensation would have sufficed, with some previous binocular experience. Anyway, here is what I observed.
1. Survival mechanisms that are used with binocular vision are entirely different from those that I used with uniocular vision.
2. I have no experience using survival mechanisms with binocular vision
3. Imperfections of my binocular vision have decreased the efficiency of binocular survival mechanisms. For example, my eyes are not converging very well, and my right eye is much weaker so it sees blur at the distance. Therefore, when my eyes switched back and forth, I sometimes felt I detected movement while there was none. I also had to consciously switch to using the better (left) eye as dominant, even though the right one (on the overextended side) often wanted to lead.
4. Despite points 2 and 3, binocular survival mechanisms are dramatically more efficient than the compensations I have previously used. In fact, I found out that the best thing I could do was to inhibit all my previous visual habits for survival, since they got in the way of using the binocular vision, however new and imperfect.
5. Elaborating on the point 4 above, my own binocular vision taught me about a new kind of attention. In order to pay attention in the new sense I merely had to stay calm and present and try to not get distracted by any thoughts. Information was literally falling on me without me asking for it, even when I was not so concentrated. In fact, however queer it may sound, I was noticing things even when I was not paying attention. The old way of paying attention is: remaining present and alert, and noticing sounds and other input, calmly examine all suspicious areas in the visual input.The problem with this strategy is that, in addition to being inefficient, it forces you to change your body language (that is, constantly look around), and that itself can get you in trouble, so the adaptation that I used back in Russia when I was really afraid of something was: to lose some sensory input in order to keep the body language (posture, way of walking) that projects confidence.
Here are some specific survival advantages that I found:
1. Understanding the geometry of the surroundings is very important so, for example, you know where to run if something happens, and you see where the danger can be. This is particularly important if the place is totally new and you haven't seen any such places before - say, if you go to an abandoned factory, - if you haven't seen any factories, you may not detect the geometry even if you had had a binocular experience for many years, but, for example, lost the vision in one eye.
2. Movement detection is essential. It had some importance in my past survival skills too, but still previously I scanned for movement. That is, I looked at specific parts of the visual input and checked if there was any movement there. Now I can detect movement even in the peripheral vision, that is, with one eye only, presumably because binocular experience has taught the brain about movement and movement detection. Also, if you understand the geometry of the space, movement detection is so much easier, because the brain already expects where the movement will take place - for example, the brain expects and is subconsciously looking for movement in the bushes or on the surface on the road. If the brain does not subconsciously understand the geometry of the surroundings, it will look for movement everywhere, thus being less efficient, or you will have to consciously direct it to look at the road. Then, of course, you will only detect movement on the road, and overall you are likely to overfocus, stop hearing sounds, and even start projecting wrong body language.
3. When you actually meet someone, it is very important to detect their binocular focus. Are they focused at all, or is it just a drunkard wandering aimlessly? Is the stranger looking directly at you?
Binocular focus on the potential source of trouble and binocular summation allow you to quickly identify if the stranger or the group of strangers seems dangerous or not; it is much easier to pick up their body language as well as simpler things such as the number of people, how far they are, and where they are going.
4. Stereopsis allows to look in the bushes. This is related to understanding geometry, but I consider it a separate advantage.
5. Understanding other binocular beings can allow you to survive more efficiently - for example, it is helpful to understand that other human beings are hardwired to detect movement. Of course, this only works if you are dealing with a binocular being. If you are attacked by a stereoblind person and you are trying to distract their attention by some common trick that relies on shifting their focus, you will probably fail.
6. Natural highlighting of what you are looking at (what's in the focus) helps to see in the dark.The lights of the cars do not blind you as long as you are not looking at them. Of course, if you do look at any source of bright light, this will blind a person with binocular vision much more than a person who had never had binocular vision, because the bright light will be in the focus, whether it is the focus of the eyes (with true binocular vision), or simply the focus of the mind/brain (with binocular experience). In fact, if you are looking with one eye, all of your binocular neurons will still get stimulated. Say, for example, that you have 100 neurons for your eyes (just to make the numbers easier), of which 50 are binocular, and 50 uniocular - 25 for each eye. If you close one eye, 75 will receive input from the other eyes. On the other hand, if all your neurons are uniocular and one eye is entirely suppressed, only 50 neurons will receive input. Of course, if both eyes are open, then all 100 neurons will receive input, of which 50 binocular neurons will receive a stronger signal because it would be coming from both eyes.
7. Whether you choose fight or flight, the natural eye-body connection will help you.
8. If you are falling asleep, binocular vision will help you stay awake. It is much easier to get underfocused while seeing a "flat picture".
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