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The Scientific Method Part 5: Illusions, Delusions, and Dreams

(This is the fifth in a series on the scientific method . ) Daniel Dennett died last week.  He was a shining light of rationality and clari...

Illusions, on the other hand, are only experienced in response to real sensory stimulus, and for the most part in predictable ways that are the same across nearly all humans and even some animal species. But the bottom line is that we have a pretty good idea of how silicon works, and we have a pretty good idea of how paper and ink work, and if it turns out that paper can ink could be made to do anything even remotely like what silicon can do it would be Big News, and since there hasn't been any Big News about this, the best explanation of the perceived motion is that it's an illusion. I will eventually get around to answering these questions, which will consist mainly of my summarizing Dennett's book so if you want a sneak preview you can just go read it.

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