The invisibility paradox
The optic nerve dominates.
It’s piped directly into our brains and uses a lot of processing power to help us discern the world through vision.
As a result, it’s louder than our other senses and often outshouts the rest of our brain. That’s why it’s easy to be fooled by a magician.
This focus on sight means that we often are at a loss on how to deal with things that are invisible.
It works in our favor with the placebo effect. We can see that we just swallowed a pill, or wore a brace, or bought an expensive bottle of wine. That input helps us heal or enjoy the moment, even if the organic invisible things behind the scenes don’t quite match what we saw.
And it works against us when it’s time for our community to process things that are invisible over time (like evolution or systems change) or invisible in the moment (like viruses and greenhouse gasses).
When there’s a conflict between what we know and what we see, we often default to the wrong one.