sarah

[To See or To Think]
[Amy Leach] [A Public Sphere] [Summer 06]
Cats have iridescent tapeta in their eyes for gathering the palest traces of light; but all that gathered scattery light in their eyes, then, prevents cats from perceiving fine details. And hawks detect details, but since they do not have tapeta for collecting flickers, they must depend on the sun to boom down obvious light for them to see by. Your blessing is your curse and your curse is your blessing. Because you see details, you cannot see hints of light; because you see hints of light, you cannot see details. You would need diverse eyes if you wished to be equally penetrating and sensitive.
You would need to have eyes like the box jellyfish, with its 16 light-sensitive eyes and eight acute camera-like eyes – all 24 eyes hanging down on stalks.
However, you would also need a brain.
But maybe that is not possible; maybe, in fact, the brainlessness of the box jellyfish is a direct consequence of its tremendous powers of sight. Perhaps neither the animal nor the prophet has been invented who could process so thorough a vision.