TCAN: Professor Don Katz: Apples to Apples - Just an Illusion
Our Brandeis friends have invited us to another thought-provoking talk, part of their Faculty-in-the-Field series. Free!
People are comfortable in the belief that their sensory systems tell them what is out there in the world. An apple looks like an apple and tastes like an apple, and so we know that it’s an apple. In reality, however, this belief (while comforting) is misguided: The information that we get from our eyes and tongue is in fact highly ambiguous; far from reporting “what’s out there,” the job of our sensory brain is to GUESS what’s out there, a job that it performs by putting together as many different sources of ambiguous information as it can.
Professor Don Katz will show this process in action, demonstrating how easy it is to change what something tastes like and even looks like. These demonstrations are not merely parlor tricks — they reveal that illusions, which we like to think represent our sensory systems malfunctioning, are in fact the very basis of perception!
Admission is free, and light refreshments will be served.
RSVP by May 2 to alumnievents@brandeis.edu.