3 ms·
Is it not sensible, though? People are trying to argue that light from a backlight is inherently more dangerous than reflected light. The easiest way to dispel
by coder543 8y ago
Is it not sensible, though? People are trying to argue that light from a backlight is inherently more dangerous than reflected light. The easiest way to dispel this notion is to establish that the light from a backlight is just light like any other, which it is. At most, it varies in spectrum and intensity. Polarization is affected by filters outside of the light source. The phase that's hitting your retina varies entirely based on irrelevant things like when the light source was turned on and how far away it is.
Starting by pointing out that intensity and wavelength are the only intrinsic properties is a great starting place.
You still haven't pointed out any additional properties that have any bearing on how your retina is affected. I was wrong the say that there were no other properties, since we can endlessly discuss the quantum nature of light or how it experiences no flow of time since it travels at the speed of light or all sorts of other properties...
but none of these things change based on the light source. Light is light, except for the intensity and wavelength. Unless we're willing to consider things which could affect reflected light just as much as they could affect emitted light, since they're the same thing. Light.
- pvg 8y agoLight is light, except for the intensity and wavelength. I'm not sure why you're so set on this obviously inaccurate thing and are now moving the goalposts to stuff about retinas and what the meaning of 'intrinsic' is. All I'm saying is both light and especially the perception of it are fairly complicated. You can just read up on it like everyone else instead of building a weird messageboard logic hill fort.
- coder543 8y agoYet you fail to point out the inaccuracies... I'm not moving the goal posts, I'm just clarifying where they were to begin with. You pushed them as far as you could within the wording of my original message, instead of taking the "strongest plausible interpretation" of my original message.
- pvg 8y agoI was very explicit what these inaccuracies are and that they materially affect perception - that's why I gave you examples of actual things rather than concepts. In response, you're telling me lasers are all about about being very red and polarization comes from filters. So, respectfully, I'm suggesting the discussion would make a lot more sense if you just spent five minutes refreshing your understanding of these things instead of us having a charitable interpretive dance-off.
- dang 8y agoPlease omit the personal swipes from your comment here. We've had to ask you this before. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html