Humans Can See Into the Future

Newly published scientific research describes how humans can see into the future - without the aid of a crystal ball. But don't get too excited - it's only about a tenth of a second into the future!

The research by Mark Changizi of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, is published in the journal Cognitive Science. It describes the effect of something known as the "neural lag" - the delay between light hitting the eye and the brain interpreting that information. This delay is around a tenth of a second, which may not sound like much but could make a significant difference in some circumstances.

The theory is that the human brain has evolved to compensate for this delay. We extrapolate recent input to predict what we are going to see before it actually happens. This isn't just theoretical, the visual system actually generates appropriate images - we literally "see" the future.

Changizi's research concentrates on the way this system can explain various optical illusions - we're fooled into seeing what we expect to see. Personally I wonder if this mechanism also has implications for experiences such as deja vu and even some psi phenomena.