What’s the world actually like, if what we see is just our brain’s interpretations?

Check your subscription status, update your details and more. What’s the world actually like, if what we see is just our brain’s interpretations? This question was posed as part of New Scientist’s Last Word series, in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions.

Here’s what our readers had to say **If the world we observe is just our brain’s interpretation of the electrochemical signals it receives from our eyes, what is the world actually like?** What we see is the brain’s interpretation of electrochemical signals produced when light hits the retina. There is no reason to assume that our perception is the definitive one. Asking what reality looks like independently of any observer may therefore be a little like asking what a symphony sounds like to something that cannot hear.

There are pressure waves in the air, but “the sound” is the experience produced when an auditory system interacts with those waves. What something looks like is quite literally in the eye of the beholder: bats construct a world largely through echolocation, while birds and bees see wavelengths that are invisible to us. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox.

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