Do Blind People Understand Transparency, Translucency, and Reflections?

Tommy Edison, who was born blind, responds to the popular question, “how does a blind person imagine things that are transparent, translucent, and reflective?” First, he explains what whether or not he understands those concepts, what he thinks share those properties, and reacts to a list of things that may have those characteristics.

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Music:

“Just With You” by Little Maps
“The Look in Your Eyes” by Steve Laduke
“Spring in Barcelona” by Ian Post
“Take Off” by Light Years
“Effronté” by Jake Bradford
“Unexpected Moment” by Feet On Water
“Percussion” by Young Rich Pixies

#transparent #visualart #reflection

[ExperimentalFun]

Tell him about how a bright flashlight can shine through your hand and make it glow red

[truthsmiles]

Hi Tommy - You asked, "Do you see the window AND the thing on the other side? Or do you not see the window?"

Here's my attempt at an answer. If you're in a quiet room and the air conditioner is running, you can hear it easily. But if someone starts talking to you, your ears can technically hear both, but your brain ignores the fan sound and focuses on the person's voice, essentially making the fan 'disappear'. Now, if you consciously focus your attention back to the fan sound you'll be able to hear it again. Looking at or through a window is almost exactly the same in that if we focus on the window it's easy to see and the object behind it kind of gets ignored by our brain, but if we look THROUGH the window, it seems to disappear completely!

[yuujin]

Can we just appreciate how accurate Ben's comparison of sound being muffled to light being blurred is?

[Zhiperser]

His knowledge of something that he has no first hand experience of is amazing.

[pthomgalaxy]

I desperately want for this man to gain the ability to see. He would experience such wonder in things that we all take for granted every day

[summern]

Peoples eyes are also reflective. You can see yourself in someone else’s eyes!! I was hoping he’d tell you that

[Stormprobe]

Do you really want to blow his mind?
One-way mirror!

[BitcoinJake]

A bubble can be:
1 transparent
2 translucent
&
3 reflective

[nikkirennardo]

Seeing through glass is like feeling an object in water. You are aware the water is there, but it doesn't affect how you feel the object. Translucent is like feeling something with gloves on, you loose a lot of detail but you get the jist

[thogg]

Ben, I thought that the blanket and speaker was an excellent way to describe the difference between transparent and translucent to someone without sight! Makes total sense!

[taryndipman]

It just genuinely warms your heart to see how something "ordinary" like light bulbs and windows and water can bring so much amazement and joy to a person. It just really reminds you that all of life is a gift and that everything, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is important and special and mind-blowing to someone who hasn't had the opportunity to experience it.

[freezngsapper]

“Depends who’s in it”. That was so low-key smooth.

[Kolossus_]

For us it's something so basic and boring but to a blind person it's mind shattering.

[ShamsaShakir]

I didn't think the concept of mere BUBBLES is so complicated that it would blow his mind. Wow..We really are ungrateful about a lot of things..

[Kellam]

Wow, I was trying to think of examples for each of these and tommy knew more off the top of his head than I did

[xxalmostgoldenxx]

It depresses me that I'm only discovering this channel once he's stopped uploading. I love his wonder and enthusiasm.

[etvdzs]

Strangely enough, i'd never heard the term "jewel case" before. I always just call it a CD case :)

[MajoraZ]

What's really crazy are iridescent or pearlesecent objects, like peacock feathers, certain insect shells, or certain gemstones. Those change color based on the exact angle you look at them from and have crazy, almost three dimensional looks to their color patterns. They can look multiple colors at once without at being a mix of those colors (IE, they can look blue and yellow at once without actually mixing together to make green).

[totalrevengeance]

I love how happy he gets over just being described these objects. Makes me have more appreciation for my sight :)

[justmelthewriter]

The best analogy I can think of for transparency is like if you stick your hand into a pool and grab a pair of goggles. You can feel the water, and the goggles at the same time. You can focus on either feeling more than the other, but you can still faintly feel the other and you're still touching both.
Hopefully that makes some sort of sense :)