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"Interestingly, Octopuses have very similar eyes but do not have a blind-spot. This is because our optic nerve comes out of the retina into the eye and then bac
by Jun8 7y ago
"Interestingly, Octopuses have very similar eyes but do not have a blind-spot. This is because our optic nerve comes out of the retina into the eye and then back out, whereas optic nerves in an octopus come out in the opposite direction."
This "design flaw", i.e. placing wiring (nerves) in front of detectors (retina) is interesting and has been discussed at length (e.g. https://www.quora.com/Is-Dawkins-right-about-the-human-eye-being-wired-backwards-in-%E2%80%9CThe-Blind-Watchmaker%E2%80%9D https://www.quora.com/Is-Dawkins-right-about-the-human-eye-b...), because it is point of contention for people arguing for Intelligent Design. Cephalod eyes evolved differently so don't have this problem (impossible not to feel a bit jealousy for this, like the randomized gradient decent optimization designed by your colleague converging on a much better solution than yours :-)
- GuiA 7y agoI don’t understand how it is a point of contention for people arguing for intelligent design. Wouldn’t it fall in the same category as questions like “if God is so good why are there wars and poverty”, where the answer is “to your feeble human mind it would seem like a design flaw, but God knows everything and everything He does is perfect but because you’re not God you can’t understand his brilliance”?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoI think so. Another way to say this is "if you think you observed a flaw in humans, it's by definition not a flaw cause god doesn't do those". Like heart attacks, childhood brain cancer, blind-spot in our eyes.
- lurquer 7y ago>Cephalod eyes evolved differently so don't have this problem What exactly is the ‘problem’? How is your vision adversly effected by this layout? Or, are you just arguing about aesthetics?
- apoph3nia 7y agoReminds me of that octo-human hybrid imprisoned in a robot that looks like a giant walking smartphone from "Twenty-First Century in Twenty-One Words or Less": https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqhjRSSvrKk/WgulKWrSrpI/AAAAAAAAW_I/aN6zfPH9xsouUMJkLIo6--8xZckLERPpACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-11-14%2Bat%2B5.32.07%2BPM.png https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqhjRSSvrKk/WgulKWrSrpI/AAAAAAAAW...