July '19

We then immediately realized how often this scout among the organs provides us with an incorrect, even misleading image of the world.

The topic of our discourse is of course eyes and optical illusions. To find a good example, we need not look far: we have incorporated one such illusion into your new socks. If you take a step back from them, you will notice the blue and yellow circles getting a greenish tinge, even though the entire sock does not use a single thread of green yarn. That, however, is only the tip of the colorful iceberg.

Physically speaking, your honorable eye is only capable of distinguishing three colors: red, green and blue. We are of course not accusing honorable members of the Gentlemen’s Sock Club of Ponožkovice of being colorblind. The human eye has three types of cone cells that react to three different wavelengths. Depending on how much each individual cone is stimulated, the brain then draws out an image of the reality that surrounds us.

So, is color merely an illusion? Well, color is a reaction of the body to the contact with the surrounding world. It is no more an illusion than the delicious taste resulting from the contact between your taste buds and blueberry pie or the gratifying sensation on your feet when putting on a new pair of socks.

If, in that case, colors are really just an illusion, then they are a truly intoxicating one. And the two guides in our head faithfully serve us these delicacies day in, day out. Surely you would not hold a grudge against them, if from time to time they confuse a blueberry for a strawberry.