As a long aside, just to add to the categories of sensory illusions, as we’ve discussed and seen many optical and haptic ones, another wonderful category is auditory
Here is a never-ending Infinite descent, the Shepard scale, which plays with a base pitch moving upward (then an infinite ascent) or downward while playing octaves below and above it. This gives the illusion of a never ending descending/ascending scale. Funny thing is you might have heard this before as it’s been used by bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wilco, Stephin Merritt, and Pink Floyd (I also though Missy Elliot used it, but I can’t find any evidence of it right now).
You can go to Diana Deutsch‘s website at UCSD for a good number of illusions and possible processes behind them.
As far as what I am missing that is really there, the fact is I am missing a lot simply because there is so much information around me which I am simply incapable of processing, and I doubt there is much more I can do to enhance the sheer amount of data coming in at all times, but can only do so much as pay attention to different bit/areas of it. What I would like to do in that regard is to slowly enforce a mindfulness of things at work around me–because even as we learn that our consciousness is rather limited compared to what we take in, I doubt that I am often engaging with the full little bit of consciousness that I do have. One area I might be interested in bringing to consciousness is the performativity (in the way Judith Butler uses it, I think) of certain roles in social situations, but I don’t think I can right now cogently state what I want to do in those/her terms.
Also, I have a desire to not fall prey to used car salesmen.
