Anon. Left a comment about how there are lots of colours in black that we can't see. Because we only see with our eyes a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
(Thinking about the EM spectrum I reckon it's limited only by the size of the universe and by Planck length. I was pleased to find that Wikipedia thinks the same. So it links the relativistic scale with the quantum scale, the two unreconciled poles of science.)
Anyway, as well as the colours of the rainbow, we can also feel the sun's rays - infrared on our skin. It's like having very poor eyesight in another part of the spectrum.
Some animals have eyesight that bad - just the ability to distinguish light and dark, and a bit of direction. I am becoming one of them - I got my first pair of glasses yesterday.
I have a camera with a big zoom lens. I took some photos of Liverpool from the top of the cathedral tower last night.
The local baptists have a zoom lens on their projector. Which is handy in some installations - I suggested it at Hawkshead.
For some reason our eyes don't have a zoom feature. So why can't eyes zoom in? I've read some science fiction stories when people get fitted with zoom eyes (though they would look a bit odd with the extra lens stuck out somewhere in front). Maybe it's because there's usually an alternative to zoom.
It's getting closer to what you want to look at. This is usually the preferable option. Instead of staying away from some thing or someone, we get close enough to actually listen to them. Maybe that's why eyes don't zoom.
1 Corinthians 2:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
Location:Shed
Not all animals are so bad, Birds can see in UV, so perhaps wearing a fake duck on your head might not be an adequate disguise. As for the zoom, Kryten found the same problem when he became human. But then again I'm sure the resolution of my sight is better at the centre of my vision than at the edge, so why bother with zoom when you can just up the resolution. Thou that still don't explain why I can't see a nat at five miles...
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you're visiting such iconic venues. I've been to Salisbury cathecral and was filled with wonder. It always gets me when I see the work, art and skill of so many "ordinary" people used in such a way that it is a continuing act of worship---- and they used the most current technology of their time too.
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