23.5.10

Moving Too Fast Or Too Slow Depending On Light Conditions

Just how scary is a world where everything around you moves 8% too fast in the dark, and in the light everything moves about 20% too slow, but your comprehension speed is pegged at an average 600 milliseconds?

How much more disquieting if you are just a kid?

Surah 22 Hajj (Pilgrimmage)
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ
فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ
لَن يَخْلُقُوا ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ اجْتَمَعُوا لَهُ
وَإِن يَسْلُبْهُمُ الذُّبَابُ شَيْئًا لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ
ضَعُفَ الطَّالِبُ وَالْمَطْلُوبُ 22:73

22:73 O, All You People! An example is struck (An Allegory, a Simile; The Saying Goes…)-- So, Pay Attention (listen to it, harken)! Indeed, those you call upon other than God cannot create (form) a fly (flutter/flicker) (even) should they (coalesce) come together (to do so); and if the fly (flutter/flicker) rob (deprive/strip) them of anything they cannot regain(recoup/recapture) it from him; feeble are the seekers and the sought.

Quick, what's 73 less 22?

Now that we got the Area 51 matter out of the way, let's take a look at why the Fly Fable is found in the Quran.

The visual acuity of a fly is much keener than that of the average human; a necessary evolutionary bias that enables the fly to resolve visual cues when flying/manuevering at flight speed; a speed that is much faster than required for human bipedal locomotion, otherwise the poor fly would go splat.

It is reported in the literature that the fly's flicker fusion frequency is about 300 Hz vs the human's (on average 24 Hz in low-light conditions and about 60 Hz in bright fields). Higher flicker fusion frequency is always the case for birds and flying insects which enables them to see details while moving at faster speeds than demanded of us, and avoid obstacles in a fraction of the time that a human could (that's why people get into high speed car accidents, but hawks don't run into trees and shrubs when in hot pursuit of their ground prey). To a fly we appear to be moving in slow motion, at least 5 times slower and that's why we can't easily swat it.

While Sign 22:73 alludes to the fly robbing someone of something that they cannot recoup even should they combine forces to get it back, the deeper meaning is that those who suffer from the inability to coalesce or combine their efforts to create the flutter or flicker are unable to form the correct flicker (fusion frequency) even if they come together for that purpose; and that this flicker disparity is stripping them of something that cannot be readily regained (probably their comprehension or some other intangible thing that cannot actually be restored); making them feeble or debilitated.

If it is assumed that the chapter number, in this case 22, is the average low-light flicker fusion frequency for these individuals with this dysfunction. The implication is that it must be a scary, disconcerting experience to be in the dark and have things jump out and around at about 8% faster rate than expected. This group of people may be suffering some form of autism since the word 'dharb' alludes to 'various, trashing, multiple impact' which sometimes manifests as repetitive rocking back-and-forth motion or striking out. And in bright-light conditions the world must be moving about 22% too slow if the verse number 73 is assumed to be the average bright-light flicker fusion frequency for someone suffering from this condition.

It is just an assumption, but having one's perception challenged in this way would undoubtedly affect behaviour, speech, socialization--what have you.

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