RAD4921 said:
As far as I know dimensions only exist in geometry and like mathematics and maybe even consciousness "It is out there or in here?" I agree with a lot you said. Time is a measurement which makes me question the validity of it.
I am really replying to the thread starting question (Is motion an illusion?), but chose to do so here so I could invite RAD4921 (and others) to come and participate in the thread that got moved from "generat philosophy" to the branch about mathematics and philosophy - Thread called: Time does NOT exist - Math Proof
It is easy to show that perception of motion is an illusion, or at least sometimes is. In psychology there is a well-know effect, called the "waterfall effect" where a stationary object is perceived as moving. From a neurophysicological POV it is easily explained, and closely related to the fact that long stairing at a red spot and then looking at a white wall will cause you to perceive a green spot on the wall.
Motion is one of the many "features" separtated out for evey object in the field of view. (If memory serves me correctly it is processed in a part of the brain caled V5, but it may be color that is process there.) The fact that many different features are processed in well separated neural tissue, is why I developed a non standard theory of visual perception. (No cognitive scientist has the slightest idea how we perceive unified objects as these "features" never are reassembled in one place in the brain. See thread I started on Free Will ("What price Free will")
You can google "Waterfall effect AND fatigue" and should get good infro on how and why motion is sometimes an illusion, but basically the idea is:
Suppose you have programmed a computer to continiously display a set of horizontal black and white bars moving down on the monitor, New ones appearing at the top as old ones disapear at the bottom. The way the motion feature is detected is that in V5? there are different cells that respond to both each specific direction of motion and to each specific speed of motion.
If you look too long at one speed bars moving in one direction they become tired (fatigued, just like looking at the red spot too long). These cells are associated with their complement, which is not excited by the down going pattern of horizontal bars. Thus when the bars on the monitor stop moving, the balance between these two specific sets of "motion detectors" is not with equal activity.
You will easly see that no new bars are being introduced at the bottom of the screen but simultaneously you will have the strong perception that the bars are steadily moving up. After a minute or so, this peception will fade as the fatigued "down cells" recover. If you hunt around in the net, you should be able to down load a program that will run the "waterfall effect" for you. (at east one was out there about 10 years ago.)
It is a really strange sensation to preceive motion while looking at something that is not moving. - In my book that proves motion can be an illusion.
