# You want a thought to ponder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 7, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460 "2000-01-07T08:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smcdonald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Smcdonald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smcdonald)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/1 "2000-01-07T08:14:00Z")
Ponder this: In reference to the spoons article and funhouse mirrors stuff… If you could somehow take one of your eyeballs and point it so that it looked directly into your other eyeball, what would you see? Think about it, without the benefit of mirrors, you would see a pure image being reported by both eyes, looking into one another. I don’t know what one would see, but I sure would like to know. What ho? What’s the straight dope? ---
**Author:** ![woodja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woodja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodja)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/2 "2000-01-07T16:04:00Z")
Wouldn’t you just see an eye? Unless you are a proponent of the “window to the soul” theory of occular contact. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/3 "2000-01-08T04:24:00Z")
Please add a hyperlink to the column you are discussing. ---
**Author:** ![Konrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f475e1/32.png) [@Konrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Konrad)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/4 "2000-01-16T04:48:00Z")
If you’re so interested in this why don’t you just set up two mirrors so that you can do this stunt. On the other hand, if you do use the no-mirrors method of doing it I want to see pictures of the outcome. ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2000, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/5 "2000-01-16T08:23:00Z")
[Why does the bowl of a spoon turn my reflection upside down?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_082.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/6 "2000-01-18T01:34:00Z")
Thanks for adding that link, Louie. You know, for a weasel-jealous lizard, you’re pretty cool 😃 Anyway, folks it’s me, Smcdonald (the OP), under a new name. So, what I’m getting at, is that I don’t think you would see another eye. I don’t know what you would see. Think about it: No one has ever been able to look into their own eyes without the use of some apparatus. No mirrors, no fiber optics, no cameras. Just two eyes, one brain. Eyes that are _supposed_ to look out at the world, not into each other. I don’t think that the image would be anything simple. Just ponder it for a minute. The nature of our eyes and the fact that (I think) they report to the same place. HMMMMM… * * * “And on the eighth day, God Created beer to prevent the Irish from taking over the Earth.” _~SNOOGANS~_ ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/7 "2000-01-18T07:13:00Z")
When your two eyeballs receive images, they then send those images to your brain. Your brain gets two separate images. Your brain can process these two images in several ways: If the two images are exactly the same, the brain simply superimposes them – you see one image. If the two images are slightly off, like when you are looking out normally at the world (or at a _Magic Eye_ picture), your brain maps a 3D image into your mind from those two 2D images. If the two images are too different to either superimpose or 3D map, then your brain gets confused. It will attempt superimposing, and when that doesn’t work, it will switch back and forth favoring one eye over the other. (It tends to favor the brighter or better focused object.) Now, there is nothing ‘magical’ about the ‘nature of our eyes.’ Looking at something directly or through a good mirror has no (discernible) difference. So, getting one eye to look in the other with mirrors (and there are non-reversing mirrors you can use) will produce no magical effect. Your brain will receive almost two identical images and will probably simply superimpose them. You can get the same effect by getting eyeball to eyeball with another person and have your right eye look into their left eye and vice versa. No big thing. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/8 "2000-01-18T08:06:00Z")
I’m still not convinced. Maybe I’m making it too metaphysical or whatever, but I think that it would be a much different image. I have no facts to back this up, it is just a gut feeling, and let me tell you, this is a big gut. * * * “And on the eighth day, God Created beer to prevent the Irish from taking over the Earth.” _~SNOOGANS~_ ---
**Author:** ![Hyxtryx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7feea3/32.png) [@Hyxtryx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyxtryx)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/9 "2000-01-19T02:04:00Z")
As Woodja said, you’d see an eye. Or rather, 2 of them superimposed. Each eye would see the other eye and your brain would superimpose them. They wouldn’t match up exactly, and your hand would wobble, causing one eye image to bounce around a bit, but basically you’d see a couple superimposed eyes. ---
**Author:** ![WhyGordo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3be4f8/32.png) [@WhyGordo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyGordo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/10 "2000-01-21T03:55:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Hyxtryx: > **They wouldn’t match up exactly, and your hand would wobble, causing > one eye image to bounce around a bit…** The sight of someone holding one of their own eyballs in each hand is the image I’d be interested in seeing. * * * Warning! Safe is protected by a time control device. ---
**Author:** ![RobRoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ba0ec/32.png) [@RobRoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobRoy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-thought-to-ponder/460/11 "2000-01-21T08:20:00Z")
I did hear about an owner of a pug who was greeted one day by his very agitated canine, whose bug eye had dropped out, after it had bumped into the furniture. Imagine what the dog was seeing while it’s eye bobbed up and down on the optic nerve??? {The owner popped the eye back in}