Our eyes are fooling us

[Music]

year

2007 january 12th lanfant plaza metro

station

of washington dc usa a man

acting out as homeless is playing his

violin to make a living

the man stood there for 45 minutes

playing

during this period of time around 1100

people walked by

but only 20 out of them tipped him and

just six

bypasses appreciated his music enough to

stop for a while

and listen a vast majority paid no

attention to him whatsoever

little did they know that this homeless

man

was actually joshua bell one of the most

famous

violinists of the contemporary world

whose concerts

were always sold out the average price

of a ticket you ask

over a hundred dollars so the story went

viral and even became the topic of

social studies

the question was why did the people

ignore the performance

for which they were usually more than

ready to pay a hundred bucks

it turns out people trust their eyes and

sight more than

any other of their senses after all the

stereotype is that

if you see someone homeless you may

naturally ignore him

this stereotype mainly comes forth from

the data

our eyes convey

you have probably noticed that blind

people are much more alert of their

other senses

than people with functioning vision this

is due to the fact that our eyes are the

body part that tends to fool us most of

the time

and when we don’t count on our eyes

alone our brain

is free from all the tricks and

illusions our eyes may cause

all of you might have seen countless

magic shows

most of those shows rely on eye

illusions

that is they are inspired by the tricks

and

illusions our eyes can play on our brain

now imagine

one of these shows is streamed not on tv

but

aired on radio and you don’t see

but hear what is going on

this would completely ruin the format of

the magic tricks

as they would have no effect on us a

good example

is the ponzo illusion where there is a

set of same

size sticks but the further the sticks

go the smaller they look

now imagine you do not see but hear the

simple magic trick

it would sound very simple if not

pointless

it would have absolutely no effect on us

no

impression because there’s no room for

the eye illusion

this deceiving feature of our eyes

allows some animals to take advantage

you might have seen puffer fish swell or

cobras and lizards with colors that make

them look much more exaggerated

these animals do this as they know that

their predators trust their eyes the

most

so they would like to look bigger and

thus mislead the said predator

into thinking that the creature in front

of it is much bigger and much powerful

than itself

chameleons as you know also have a handy

trick regarding this feature

as they could blend in with their

surroundings by changing color

to make their predators presume that

they’re actually not there

i began this talk with a story of a fake

homeless man

and i would like to end it similarly but

this time about a real

homeless guy and not in washington dc

but in ahmedli baku where i live

on one sunday morning my dad and i were

out for a simple stroll

when we saw a homeless man rummaging

through a garbage bin

he attempted to communicate with the

bypassers but all of his efforts were in

vain

his battered shabby clothes and dirty

appearance

especially his current state was utterly

repulsive towards the residents

as we approached closer however we heard

his extremely elegant speech

this was the thing that persuaded us to

stop for a while

and interact with him a matter of

minutes were enough to be thrilled

by his intelligence and sound opinions

on various topics

ranging from philosophy to the

perseverance of nature

the 81 year old’s calligraphy on

cardboard even included

references to the works of significant

azerbaijani figures such as mirza

fatalia kundov

and lotvizade even though he struggled

to feed himself

he took care of plants and stray animals

too

he even knew a bit of english which is

quite surprising for

a homeless man at his age in azerbaijan

if you ask me

this particular incident once more

reassured me that

the first impression our eyes can give

can be far

from reality

that is why whenever i hear someone

saying

i can’t believe my eyes i say you’re

better off if you don’t

do not get me wrong i am not making this

talk as something against the much

valued functions of our eyes but just

remember

to consult your other senses too while

coming to a conclusion

thank you for your valuable attention