May cause discomfort if taken too seriously...

[Sparrow]

Higgs Boson is innocent!

... but do you realise the gravity of it's effect?

 

[TXForester]

Is the world "in reality" actually curvilinear...

For me, yes. I'm told I have warped sense of perspective. 😛

 

[mdarnton]

If the OP is talking about our perception of the world, don't forget that the image that the eye throws isn't on a flat plane, but on the round inside of the eyeball. That throws another twist on perception. I'm inclined to think that this would help us perceive straight things as straight, but who knows. . .

 

[135format]

Being inclined is likely to give you a different perspective.

 

[Lawrence Sheperd]

Trompe L'oeil

p.s. Einstein said space is curved. Now explain what happens to straight lines in that context.

They end up hitting themselves in the A$$ !!

 

[bwcolor]

It is all the same with your eyes closed.

 

[DtheG]

If the OP is talking about our perception of the world, don't forget that the image that the eye throws isn't on a flat plane, but on the round inside of the eyeball. That throws another twist on perception. I'm inclined to think that this would help us perceive straight things as straight, but who knows. . .

But despite having a lens and a projecting an image onto a light sensitive surface the eye fuctions more as a scanner than a camera. The retina loses sensitivity if the image is static. What the eye detects is information about edges and patterns, what we see is constrtucted in the brain not recorded by the retina.

 

[Joakim Målare]

If the OP is talking about our perception of the world, don't forget that the image that the eye throws isn't on a flat plane, but on the round inside of the eyeball. That throws another twist on perception. I'm inclined to think that this would help us perceive straight things as straight, but who knows. . .

Yes, so the curvilinear alternative would better resemble our physical ability to record an image within the eye, although the rectilinear representation, as seen in a camera obscura, is closer to the abstract picture we see inside our minds.

... What the eye detects is information about edges and patterns, what we see is constrtucted in the brain not recorded by the retina.

I agree.

This is probably why I didn't realise that my eyeglasses aren't distortion corrected until yesterday : ) There is a lot of input to our senses that is potentially disturbing and therefore filtered away. Or adapted, to better cohere with the other senses. Just think of the experiment where people put on eyeglasses with mirrors (or prisms?) that flipped everything upside down. After a while their brains flipped it back.

Now, why we need to see things the way we do must be a result of the abstract way of thinking that we have evolved since... well, way back - but I wonder how much influence our other senses have on our vision...

Personal conclusion: things are not always what they seem to be. But I knew that already. Perhaps if i change "not always" into "never", all this thinking actually lead somewhere... 🙄