The Nexus (above) unveiled the meaning of this song for me.
Unless I am deceived, which is always a possibility of course, this song is about the inherent deception in our perception. In other words, the perceiver is the "Ultimate Deceiver."
It is almost undeniable that this is what the song is about. I will start from the beginning, and I will use many things from the prior posts.
Change Blindness: according to wikipedia, change blindness "is a normal phenomenon of the brain which show in light that the brain does not have a precise representation of the world but a lacunar one, made of partial details." This is my favorite example: in 1998, a study was conducted where a man would approach people on a college campus and ask for directions. Mid-conversation, two men would carry a large board in between the direction giver and direction receiver. During that brief time period, the direction receiver would be replaced. A bunch of people failed to notice. Why? (1) Maybe our brains only really recognize what they perceive to be important (thus, in this situation, they would recognize a lost person, but the actual characteristics of that person would be unimportant) or (2) Maybe our brains try to make sense of things (thus, in this situation, our brains would merge the images of the two people to prevent the illogical possibility that the person transformed, or that we were imagining a different person before, etc.). Notice, that there is no real deception with Change Blindness; our eyes see the images they are supposed to (i.e., our eyes see two different people). But our brains reject that image. Instead, we only "perceive" one individual. Without our brains, the trick would not work.
Of course, we don't want to admit this because it is "a brain function we'll never admit as defeat."
Another line: "An unspoken religion in being the ALL-DOMINANT...This is what we call a brain." In other words, our brain is religiously devoted to being the ALL-DOMINANT. Or our brains are devoted to making themselves seem all-dominant. If our brains seek perfect dominance, then they would never let us realize that there is something outside ourselves that they cannot make sense of (change blindness).
Another line: "Close one eye. Step to the side." If you cover one eye, close one eye, or take on step to the side, then your entire perception of the world changes. You cannot see things that you could see before. Those things you can see may be cast in more sunlight or in more shadow. Because our brains our so self consumed, we may naturally assume that the changes we see are actually occurring or that we are perceiving something else that is causing such changes in our perception. However, we are the cause of the change. Without us moving or closing an eye, our perception would not change.
Another: "As humans, we could never be content with knowing all. Yet we can't be content with the fact that our brains will never know." I think the phrase "we can't be content with the fact that our brains will never know" speaks for itself. How could we be content with the fact that we can't trust what our senses are telling us?
Now, here is the fun part (thanks to The Nexus as well): "A magician's pure joy. A mind bend for the common folk. Follow the straight line (a full house watching what we cannot see)." According to The Nexus, "Follow the straight line" refers to how our eyes naturally follow straight lines rather than squiggly lines. Thus, a magician "deceives" us by moving one hand in a straight line while moving the hand with the real item of interest in a straight line. We only see the squiggly hand. But notice that if we actually watched the squiggly hand, then the magician would not be successful in deceiving us. In other words, we are the most important part of the deception. If our brains didn't do their jobs, then the whole trick would fall apart. Thus, we are "the ULTIMATE DECEIVER."
Finally, Tommy makes it utterly obvious for us at the end:
The Nexus (above) unveiled the meaning of this song for me.
Unless I am deceived, which is always a possibility of course, this song is about the inherent deception in our perception. In other words, the perceiver is the "Ultimate Deceiver."
It is almost undeniable that this is what the song is about. I will start from the beginning, and I will use many things from the prior posts.
Change Blindness: according to wikipedia, change blindness "is a normal phenomenon of the brain which show in light that the brain does not have a precise representation of the world but a lacunar one, made of partial details." This is my favorite example: in 1998, a study was conducted where a man would approach people on a college campus and ask for directions. Mid-conversation, two men would carry a large board in between the direction giver and direction receiver. During that brief time period, the direction receiver would be replaced. A bunch of people failed to notice. Why? (1) Maybe our brains only really recognize what they perceive to be important (thus, in this situation, they would recognize a lost person, but the actual characteristics of that person would be unimportant) or (2) Maybe our brains try to make sense of things (thus, in this situation, our brains would merge the images of the two people to prevent the illogical possibility that the person transformed, or that we were imagining a different person before, etc.). Notice, that there is no real deception with Change Blindness; our eyes see the images they are supposed to (i.e., our eyes see two different people). But our brains reject that image. Instead, we only "perceive" one individual. Without our brains, the trick would not work.
Of course, we don't want to admit this because it is "a brain function we'll never admit as defeat."
Another line: "An unspoken religion in being the ALL-DOMINANT...This is what we call a brain." In other words, our brain is religiously devoted to being the ALL-DOMINANT. Or our brains are devoted to making themselves seem all-dominant. If our brains seek perfect dominance, then they would never let us realize that there is something outside ourselves that they cannot make sense of (change blindness).
Another line: "Close one eye. Step to the side." If you cover one eye, close one eye, or take on step to the side, then your entire perception of the world changes. You cannot see things that you could see before. Those things you can see may be cast in more sunlight or in more shadow. Because our brains our so self consumed, we may naturally assume that the changes we see are actually occurring or that we are perceiving something else that is causing such changes in our perception. However, we are the cause of the change. Without us moving or closing an eye, our perception would not change.
Another: "As humans, we could never be content with knowing all. Yet we can't be content with the fact that our brains will never know." I think the phrase "we can't be content with the fact that our brains will never know" speaks for itself. How could we be content with the fact that we can't trust what our senses are telling us?
Now, here is the fun part (thanks to The Nexus as well): "A magician's pure joy. A mind bend for the common folk. Follow the straight line (a full house watching what we cannot see)." According to The Nexus, "Follow the straight line" refers to how our eyes naturally follow straight lines rather than squiggly lines. Thus, a magician "deceives" us by moving one hand in a straight line while moving the hand with the real item of interest in a straight line. We only see the squiggly hand. But notice that if we actually watched the squiggly hand, then the magician would not be successful in deceiving us. In other words, we are the most important part of the deception. If our brains didn't do their jobs, then the whole trick would fall apart. Thus, we are "the ULTIMATE DECEIVER."
Finally, Tommy makes it utterly obvious for us at the end:
"We will always be part of the Great Misdirect."