In the sci-fi movie The Matrix, people lie motionless in pods of nutrients while they "dream” that they are living normal lives in the year 1999. Their version of reality is being fed into their brains by advanced computers to keep them passive slaves of a malevolent cyber-intelligence. They see what their brains are stimulated to see, not what is there.
Look around you. What do you see? Perhaps a cat sitting in a comfortable chair. But are you sure the cat is really there? Okay, we're teasing you. You're probably not lying in a plastic pod 200 floors up in some alien power station. On the other hand, The Matrix isn't all fantasy. Given sufficient knowledge of the human brain, it would be possible to make people see whatever you wanted them to see, rather than what was in front of their eyes. That's because we see with our brains, not with our eyes. Make the right nerve cells fire in the right order, and we can't tell the difference between a real cat and one that exists only in our minds.
The brain is sometimes compared to a computer that processes input from two cameras (our eyes). In fact, it is a mass of grayish jelly weighing about a kilogram and a half with stalk-like extensions called eyes. You could call it a bio-computer-and it's a powerful one at that. Your bio-computer whips through vision tasks with tremendous speed.
This story is from the January 2022 edition of Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 2022 edition of Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
