Imagine an alien visits you on earth and tells you that it can enhance any aspect of your physical being you choose. It asks you to pick one particular augmentation; what would it be?
For me personally I would want enhanced vision. As somebody who has had to wear glasses for most of my life, the sheer joy of being able to not just see, but to super see everything around me holds a particular thrill.
The way I see it (pun completely intended) is that our eyes are the windows from which we view the world. However those windows are not like the ones in your house. They are made of a material that does not allow us to see the world as it really is.
Being able to suddenly see properly is more than just about having 20/20 vision, it is about being able to interpret the world in a much more objective way than is currently possible. We can study this just by looking at the way we have observed the world in the past, and also how standard vision augmentation aids, such as the microscope have helped us understand objective reality in a way that was previously impossible.
Truth Seeing
Before the invention of the telescope, the lights we saw in the night sky were just that, lights. Long before the birth of Copernicus, we defined these lights as the stars. The other things we observed were the clouds, the sun and the moon. Because these celestial objects were closer to us, we were able to study them and create objective and subjective truths about them.
We worked out pretty early on that the sun rose everyday. We also were able to ascertain that it was our source of light and warmth. Later as a variety religious beliefs began to take hold, we made up stories about, and started to anthropomorphise the sun.
Depending on which culture you belonged to the sun was either a god or a tool of a god or gods. We gave it emotions, when it was happy it shone down benevolently upon us. When it was not it scorched the earth with forest fires and exploding volcanoes.
As far as the moon was concerned, ancient peoples believed that it too shone, just not as brightly as the sun. In the biblical book of Genesis we see evidence of this:
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.
- Genesis 1:16
Then later on we see that even though they believed the stars to be far away, they were not so far that they could not interact with the earth.
and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
- Revelations 6:13
(This verse indicates that the authors of Revelations were also not aware of the difference of objects being small, and those that were far away. Not realising that just a single star 'falling' to earth would completely swallow the planet.)
Inner Space
It is not just in biblical history we see a different type of truth being dictated to by sight. So too in the medical profession, before the invention of the microscope doctors believed in the humor theory.
Humorism was the ancient belief that our medical well being was attained by balancing the four humors.
Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Whilst today we may scoff at such quackery. It is fairly easy to understand why this belief came about. Ultimately those were the things they could see, and so ancient doctors built up theories around the evidence at hand.
Seeing Is Believing
It was only later with the inventions of the telescope and the microscope that we were able to see a new truth. Previously unseen detail was revealed to us in all its glory.
Suddenly we realised that not all the lights in the sky were stars. Some were planets, and they had moons, and they weren't all going around the earth. Rather we were all orbiting the sun.
Later still with the help of the physics of parallax, we worked out that the stars were so far from us, we had to measure their distance in light years.
More recently we have created electron scan microscopes and space telescopes that reveal even greater levels of detail, helping us get closer to the true nature of reality.
Earthbound
Back here on earth we have had all sorts of visual aids to help the normal, average citizen. From eye glasses to cameras and everything in between, we determine a new reality based on what we can see, on a regular basis.
What all of these advancements have taught us is that our eyes are far from perfect, and often can't be trusted to deliver the truth.
This is mainly because of the way our brains interpret the information carried to it via our optical nerves. The term optical illusion is familiar to most, if not all humans over a certain age.
As we move deeper into the 21st century we can expect greater amounts of medical technology and biological augmentations. We are moving into an era whereby you won't just be healed, you'll be improved.
So much so that with any luck, I won't have to wait for that alien to come down and offer me bionic eyes. I'll be able to pop down to my nearest augmentation clinic and get them adjusted, and quite frankly, I can't wait to try out their new zoom feature.
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.
- Jonathan Swift
Brainy Quote
Sources:
Nicolaus Copernicus Biography: Facts & Discoveries- space.com
WHAT BODY AUGMENTATIONS WOULD YOU GET? WOULD YOU WANT ENHANCED EYESIGHT, OR HEARING? OR PERHAPS YOU'D ADD A COMPLETELY NEW BIT TO YOUR BODY ALTOGETHER?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Title image: Patrick Brinksma on Unsplash
