Fourier Transforms

I won't lie to you, today's post is a little complicated. I've tried to simplify it the best I can, but if you hang in there it builds to a really cool idea. In the eighteenth century, a mathematician named Jean B.J. Fourier developed a mathematical way of converting any pattern into a language of simple waves. The equations he developed to convert images to wave forms and back again are known as Fourier Transforms. In 1979 two Berkeley neurophysiologists Russell and Karen DeValois discovered something remarkable about the brain. It had been known that specialized cells in the brain called feature detectors would only respond to a specific visual pattern like only horizontal lines. To test a theory about these feature detectors they devised an experiment. They used Fourier equations to transform plaid and checkerboard patterns into simple wave forms. They then tested to see how the brain cells responded to the wave forms. They found that the brain cells didn't respond to the original patterns, but instead to the translations of the patterns proving that the brain was using it's own Fourier mathematics to translate wave forms into images. Karl Pribram knew that these wave forms are the language of holograms and felt that this experiment added weight to his theory of the brain functioning holographically. The interesting thing about this is that it's possible that external reality doesn't really appear the way we experience it. Instead external reality might look like a series of wave forms in an interference pattern and your brain does some Fourier calculations and converts those wave forms into images.