>> ^braindonut:

Seriously? Mystery Spot blew your mind?
A coworker told me to go to Mystery Spot. So I did. I was completely unimpressed. Not a single illusion was actually impressive.
I will forever be labeled a humbug, I suppose. Fine! Humbug it is. But I will cast judgement down from my humbug tower. You can't stop me.


When I was a kid, my elementary school had a field trip to the Mystery Spot and I remember it blowing my mind too.

Looking back on it, I really think my teacher should have told us it was just a trick.

>> ^critical_d:

The hipster freaks me out more than the room itself.


Yeah fuck that guy's stripped T shirt.

. . .He does seem to have an interesting blog though.
http://scienceline.org/author/christopher-intagliata/

4 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

>> ^00Scud00:
Nice, but I was hoping for a reveal at the end to see how it really works.
This won't completely explain it, but it'll shed a little light on the reality of the structure.

>> ^hpqp:

>> ^bmacs27:
Right, that's what I meant by "unless we want to call video in general an optical illusion."

oops, I was so intent on pedantery I overlooked that part of your comment. My humblest apologies. hangs head


Don't beat yourself up! Your pedantry is appreciated anyhow.

>> ^bmacs27:

Right, that's what I meant by "unless we want to call video in general an optical illusion."


oops, I was so intent on pedantery I overlooked that part of your comment. My humblest apologies. *hangs head*

Right, that's what I meant by "unless we want to call video in general an optical illusion."

>> ^bmacs27:

Very cool, but I'd hesitate to call these optical illusions. That is, unless you want to call video in general an optical illusion. Usually an illusion highlights a perceptual heuristic gone awry. This is a just a clever form of animation really.


If we want to be pedantic, animation (and film) are optical illusions themselves, in that they fool the brain into thinking a series of still images are in motion.

Very cool, but I'd hesitate to call these optical illusions. That is, unless you want to call video in general an optical illusion. Usually an illusion highlights a perceptual heuristic gone awry. This is a just a clever form of animation really.

>> ^xxovercastxx:

>> ^shinyblurry:


You have to ask yourself, if he's willing to lie about his education, what else is he willing to lie about?
I got about 10-15 minutes in and couldn't listen anymore. I like hearing a well-(in)formed counter-argument but this guy isn't even on a high school level of scientific understanding.


Not only that, but even in the first few MINUTES he already doesn't understand the very NATURE the way the brain interprets data and information. He's spending time talking about this important ability in humans yet leaves out ALL of psychology and neuroscience and what they have to say on the subject. Guess what they have to say? So he goes on and on talking about this WORTHLESS notion of design and doesn't understand that his brain is forcing him to BELIEVE this IS TRUE! All you have to ask him to disarm him is , "Why? Why does it look designed? Why?", then watch him splutter till his brain explodes, you know why, because due to psychology you BELIEVE it does, WITH BIAS--and it goes deeper too (much how you see optical illusions, why do those appear to be optical illusions? I don't know, why does that image appear to be designed?)--he will NEVER be able to answer that question, cause quite frankly he doesn't have the education obviously needed to do so.

His entire speech was over in the first few minutes, let alone ten to fifteen. Doctor my ass, "I" could lecture him into oblivion (as I'm sure a great many other people here could too).

This is why I've watched about three of shiny's video embeds (this being a semi-fourth as I only watched enough to know it was an epic failure). They all come from Christian based scientists that have credentials from said "Universities" or "Colleges" (next to public school, these are actually a step down in your learning experience) and are woefully unexperienced, have literal no knowledge IN THE FIELD they supposedly are talking about; or even worse they do terrible even IN the topics IN their field. This stuff works wonderfully for the religious media, religious politicians, the religious faithful, BUT you never see CERN, ITER, MIT, NASA, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA's JPL), and the various host of scientific federation teams and organizations working on ALL sorts of projects. They are never together because the other side only presents LARGE quantities BUNK "science" and BUNK or JUNK "scientific" videos. They are rightfully scorned by the media and the true scientific establishment.

You have to understand that the nature of what this man was saying in his video, like what @xxovercastxx said in his post, it's complete garbage. You can't even listen to the first minutes of it because he's already missing the boat. NO ONE except for fellow Christians will come out in support of this man's argument. There will be no "HOLY SHIT, HOW COULD WE NOT HAVE SEEN THIS" moment, because the man is an idiot. While shiny will think it's just bias and bigotry at work on the part of media and "THE WORLD'S SCIENTIFIC MINDS" (that's a lot of people shiny), they'll continue to build us useful things like planes, computers, fusion reactors (2018 for the first one), rockets, satellites, medicines, gene manipulation (already here)--->cures to genetic diseases (around the corner), cars, buildings, bridges, machines, new limbs (2030-40; stem-cell research could go FAR faster depending on how much we help), never dying (this one is tricky; some say 20!, I'd say more around 30-40 years out, BUT who gets it and what happens when we do get it--it could get scary), dams, should I go on i could list ALL night and never stop--scientists have done SO MUCH for us and still do. They are literally are best chance for a better future. People like the man in video are dangerous. They cause distrust and give mis-information about the greatest men and women that live on this Earth (other than those that are TRULY selfless souls, looking out for others always). People like that create a "rot" a disease in society; it's the "depression you feel in the air here in America. I point MY FINGER at them as the cause. They WILL NOT let progress nor happiness win, they are only concerned with what they "think", and what they "think" is not right.

What will these Christian scientists make, invent, or create for humanity, to help? Dams, cars, trains, light-bulbs--no...more videos to show scientists they're wrong... What did you get taught in school?

>> ^sillma:

There are many very simple ways just to prove immediately that it's an optical illusion, but for some reason these people just want to live in a lie and think it's a hill with messed up gravity.


While I completley agree that the effect is caused by an optical illusion I am still struggling to think of a simple method to demonstrate that it is not caused by a "local gravity distortion".

A pendulum or a bowl of water are easy ways to normally find a true level and show the direction of incline, (provided you aren't accelerating or decelerating), however in both cases a believer could argue that they are both just being pulled that way by the "backwards gravity".

(Also, sorry for replying 6 months after you originally commented.)

And they would have gotten away with it too if not for those meddling kids!

>> ^oritteropo:

That looks like the same ("Pepper's ghost") technique used for the Sega game Time Traveler and the Tupac concert... it was developed in the 16th century, and was popular on stage in the 19th century.
That said though, it was very nicely done until the last few seconds.

See also Zifnab's Awesome Lego Star wars Hologram and the Sega Time Traveler videos for more. Ars Technica have a nice article on the subject too.

The technique suddenly seems to be popping up everywhere!

That looks like the same ("Pepper's ghost") technique used for the Sega game Time Traveler and the Tupac concert... it was developed in the 16th century, and was popular on stage in the 19th century.

That said though, it was very nicely done until the last few seconds.

I prefer Murphy's Grotesque Faces.

>> ^TheJehosephat:

...“Flashed Face Distortion Effect”? The guy discovers a new illusion and DIDN'T take the opportunity to name something after himself?

I like the sound of "Murphy's Distortion"