It's Okay To Be Smart

$Sadly, no. Not possible. It’s one of those pesky limitations of space and time. You can’t even see a “present image” of your hand at the end of your arm. Factoring in the time that light takes to travel from one point to another, the biological processes that must take place in order for your retinas to register a stimulus, the speed of nerves firing on their way to the back of your brain (where visual input is analyzed), the neural processing time that it takes to interpret and process the meaning of any image … and you’re always looking at least a hefty fraction of a second into the past. Even when just staring at the coffee cup on the table in front of you. Next time someone tells you to stop living in the past, remind them that you just can’t help it! Radiolab took a really fascinating look at just how delayed our perception of the world is in a recent episode called Speed. You might be surprised what your fastest perception is (Hint: Sneak up behind someone and clap really loud).$

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Sadly, no. Not possible. It’s one of those pesky limitations of space and time.

You can’t even see a “present image” of your hand at the end of your arm. Factoring in the time that light takes to travel from one point to another, the biological processes that must take place in order for your retinas to register a stimulus, the speed of nerves firing on their way to the back of your brain (where visual input is analyzed), the neural processing time that it takes to interpret and process the meaning of any image … and you’re always looking at least a hefty fraction of a second into the past. Even when just staring at the coffee cup on the table in front of you.

Next time someone tells you to stop living in the past, remind them that you just can’t help it!

Radiolab took a really fascinating look at just how delayed our perception of the world is in a recent episode called Speed. You might be surprised what your fastest perception is (Hint: Sneak up behind someone and clap really loud).