Cold, rainy two days so I've been holed up doing next to nothing.

Tired of politics and listening to all the political pundits so
I've been watching a PBS series on Amazon Prime video about
how the human brain works.

Not a lot is understood but what is know is freaking me out.

For example:

Sight. We don't often think about how it works but most assume
it's like a CCD camera or something where images are focused on
the retina, transmitted to the brain via the optic nerves and
we "see".

Doesn't work that way at all.

We are not actually "seeing" anything. What we are visualizing is the
brain's (specifically the Thalamus section) interpretation of the
electrical impulses it receives via the optical nerves which it compares
to a vast data base of previously acquired and created visualizations
that have been generated, stored and updated since you first opened
your eyes as an infant. What you "see" is your own, personal
reality and not necessarily what others "see". You "see" a
tree and, unless there's something unique or special about it,
the thalamus just draws from the data previously stored and
adds that to the generated image. The amount of new data
it processes is very small compared to the amount of previously
acquired data it uses to create the visualization.

First time I drove to the store after watching this, I was
thinking about it and started wondering if the car I saw
slowing down ahead of me was really there. :-)