[da_chicken]

I think it's important to remember that we're not perceiving some fundamental aspect of light. We're perceiving how the photosensitive portions of our retina convert light to stimulus, and how our brains construct a meaningful image from that stimulus in our mind.

Like film photography doesn't happen in the lens or the world. It happens in that photosensitive chemical reaction, and the decision of the photographer.

[d0mine]

> how our brain construct

is the only part i.e., we perceive what brain predicts no more no less. Optical illusions demonstrate it well.

Sometimes that prediction (our perception) correlates with the light reaching the retina. But it is a mistake to think that we can perceive it directly. For example, we do not see the black hole in our field of vision where there are no receptors (due to our eyes construction).

Another example that makes the point clearer: there are no "wetness" receptors at all but we perceive wetness just fine.

[nkrisc]

It’s an important point: all our sensations are interpretations of readings from various sensing abilities.

Which is why it can be so easy to produce false sensations of many things. It’s like tricking your fridge into turning the light off by pressing the little switch instead of closing the door. The fridge isn’t detecting when the door is closed, it’s detecting with that switch is pressed and interpreting that as meaning the door is closed. However that interpretation may not always be correct.

[TomatoCo]

It reminds me of how vinyl records are fairly lossy, but they provide a superior experience in some cases because those limitations have been accounted for during the mastering process.

It's an entire pipeline from photomultiplier to recording medium to the inverse process and everything is optimized not for any particular mathematical truth but for the subjective experience.

[com2kid]

Vinyls are sometimes preferred because people like white noise, same as tube amps.

Granted some CDs are mastered like garbage, and that led to some bad press for awhile. But you can master a CD so that it sounds exactly, as in mathematically exactly, as a vinyl record, if so desired.

It is also possible to make a digital amplifier that sounds exactly identical to vacuum tubes.

Humans have well and mastered the art of shaping sound waveforms however we want.

[XorNot]

I mean I've always thought the kinetic experience of vinyl was the point: my childhood memory is the excitement and anticipation of carefully putting the needle on the lead in and hearing the subtle pops and scratches that meant it was about to start.

The whole physical enterprise has a narrative and anticipation to it.

[dotancohen]

  > carefully putting the needle on the lead in and hearing the subtle pops and scratches

Led Zeppelin III actually used that lead in as part of the music experience, and the original CD pressing didn't capture it. I've heard CD pressings (even the name remains from vinyl) that do capture it, I don't know when that started.

[close04]

> CD pressings (even the name remains from vinyl)

The name comes from the CDs being manufactured by pressing into a master mold to create the pits. Replicated (mass manufactured) audio CDs are pressed not written with a laser like duplicated ones (CD-R/RW).

[notahacker]

Not to mention the wider context of starting off by opening a beautifully designed record sleeve, and the chances people choosing to listening to vinyl are doing so on a beautifully engineered soundsystem that cost as much as a car when it was released 50 years ago, or a turntable setup that's designed for them to interact with.

[TheOtherHobbes]

You could add all of that to CD. Bigger packaging for "audiophile pressings", a play ritual, extra distortion and compression, especially in the low end, limited dynamic ranges, minimal stereo separation, even a little randomness so each listening experiences was slightly different.

This is consumer narcissism. It's the driver behind Veblen signalling - the principle that a combination of collecting physical objects. nostalgia, and the elevated taste and disposable wealth required to create a unique shrine to the superior self.

Buying houses, watches, cars, vinyl, yachts, jets, and politicians are all the same syndrome.

Some people take it further than others.

[notahacker]

You could add the audio distortion. You couldn't add the ability to place it on your DJ turntable or vintage record player (which you might have paid a small fortune for or obtained from Dad or a car boot sale). The CD is also unnecessary to obtain the music anyway.

Tbh freshly pressed vinyl is a significant way down the food chain from new cars, never mind jets and conspicuous consumption fine art, and the demographics that buy it don't necessarily have more disposable income than the demographics with Spotify subscriptions hooked up to a mid range modern soundsystem. If you really want to go full Veblen you can probably buy an NFT to give you all the bragging rights of having signalling money to waste without the inconvenience of actually having anything to look after or listen to :)

[hank808]

Most records these days use CDs as masters, sadly.

[hank808]

No. A friend of mine worked at United Record Pressing. The majority of the masters they received from customers were commercial CDs. No special master.

[dotancohen]

Are you referring to the loudness wars?

[ChrisMarshallNY]

If you pay attention to cats, you figure out they are fuzzy little “difference engines.” They seem to be hyper-tuned to things that change.

For example, if I move a small item in the corner of my room, the next time the cat walks in, he’ll go straight to it, and sniff around.

I have a feeling that cat’s eyes have some kind of “movement sensors,” built in. Maybe things that move look red, and most of the background looks grey.

[close04]

Even human eyes have some areas, outside the fovea centralis, that are very sensitive to motion even in low light. In the dark you will see motion out of the corner of your eye but you will only see pitch black if you stare in that direction.

The other part you mention is more interesting, I noticed it too. That must be a mechanism in the brain rather than the eye. It’s like the cat keeps a “snapshot” of that place to compare against next time it comes by. This might also explain why they take the same route all the time, maybe it gives them a good reference against the old snapshots.

[ninjagoo]

>> If you pay attention to cats, you figure out they are fuzzy little “difference engines.”

> That must be a mechanism in the brain rather than the eye

Check out "A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence" [1] by Jeff Hawkins [2], of PalmPilot fame. This theory postulates, in part, and with evidence, that brains are continuously comparing sensory input and movement context with learned models. I found the book to be mind-blowing, so to speak ...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Brains-New-Theory-Intelligen...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Hawkins