Yesterday (06-May-2026), during my post lunch casual browsing, I came across a tweet about Donald Hoffman and his interface theory of perception. As https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119170174.epcn216 informs us, the theory is that (here I am quoting from the link) "our perceptions have been shaped by natural selection to hide objective reality .... "
The theory zapped me! What we see, hear, feel, taste and smell may be unreal! So why does the greenery in the park near my house look so refreshing?! The theory has its critics, of course. It is not proven and could be completely wrong. Still, it provides fascinating possibilities.This was the sci-fi movie "Matrix" couched in scientific jargon!
My thoughts went to the concept of "maya", https://www.britannica.com/topic/maya-Indian-philosophy introduces the concept well. Here also, there is the idea that the world is unreal! The parallel struck me.
I read about vision online next. What I understood is this: Light from a coloured object passes through the cornea and the pupil in the front to the lens, which focusses it on to the retina in the back of the eye. There are rod and cone photoreceptor cells in the retina which convert light into electric signals, which in turn are interpreted by the brain. One key question here is the type or source of the light from the object. I will discuss this later.
The perception of colour by the eye is due to the photoreceptor cells. Rod cells are like the brightness control in our television sets. Cone cells sense red, green and blue colours and react to wavelengths of lights associated with those colours. The websites https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/brain/seeing-color, https://www.nei.nih.gov/eye-health-information/healthy-vision/how-eyes-work and https://evidentscientific.com/en/microscope-resource/knowledge-hub/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro describe the process.
The brain can be fooled though! The dress in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress looks gold and white to me, but to others it may look blue and black! In fact, the dress is blue and black actually. However when the photograph was shared on social media, one group saw blue and black while the other saw gold and white! It became viral in 2015!
What caused this magic? As the Wikipedia article explains, we discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis. Those who discount blue see gold and white; those who discount gold see blue and black!
So much for "seeing is believing"! That adage may not always be correct. It leads us back to the question: What do we actually see? https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/brain/seeing-color has a video that explains the sense of vision, illustrating what has been discussed earlier. The key point is this: when light hits the beach ball it is the REFLECTED colours that we experience, not the colours absorbed! So if I say that the ball is blue, it is actually anything but blue in one sense, since the other colours are absorbed! What then is the true colour of the ball?!
I feel that the idea of our sense organs perceiving objects is not fully understood. In fact, it is only a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes see, that itself indicates how little we actually see! I can factually state that I see only partially. The complete electromagnetic spectrum can never be detected by normal human eyes. In this manner, what we perceive is the result of our brains interpreting visual signals. As discussed, the brain can be fooled. The idea of maya (or the Matrix make believe world!) becomes easier to understand now!
Maps are a literal representation of the ground truth. Geographical features are shown in a map. It would be foolish to confuse a map with the actual physical place. If our senses provide a partial, incomplete representation of reality, it could very well be considered as an illusion! In effect, it is a model!
One of the religious songs I like is the song "Nee mayeyolago" in Kannada, available at https://dasapada.in/nii-maayeyolagoninnolu-maayeyo-kannada-english-lyrics-meaning/. One good rendition of the song is by the Kannada superstar and singer Dr. Rajkumar at https://youtu.be/eEyKEGlqMW4?si=m8cs0k3PNHxZhwAs. The lyrics of the song/ poem are simple, but their meaning is deep and powerful. The philosopher poet Kanakadasa questions about the senses in a few brief lines.
When I taste sugar, I experience its sweetness first. I could say that the sugar is in the sweetness! It is the experience of sweetness that comes prior to the realisation that it is sugar that I have tasted. This is what the poet has captured in the poem.
Isn't that nonsense?! Without the sugar, the sweetness would not exist. So, I can confidently say that the sweetness is in the sugar. Here is a thought provoking paradox/ contradiction! Kanakadasa builds on the same dilemmas for the senses of sight and smell also. The distinction between sense and sense object is blurred by him in this wonderful poem. Just like science suggests that we are incomplete and imperfect, Kanakadasa says that the mind and intellect are all part of God and the distinction between sense and sense objects is tricky to discern. Ultimately, Kanakadasa surrenders the senses to God, suggesting that everything is subsumed into God.
The idea of an incomplete perception in both science and religion makes me marvel! I find it curious, interesting and fascinating how science and spirituality can be linked!
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