The Vision Revolution

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”“A friendly tone, colorful everyday examples and many helpful figures will draw readers—science buffs or not—down the rabbit hole of cognitive theory and keep them there, dazzled.””

— from Publishers Weekly online (starred review), May 11, 2009

”“… the novel ideas that Mr. Changizi outlines in The Vision Revolution—together with the evidence he does present—may have a big effect on our understanding of the human brain. Their implication is that the environments we evolved in shaped the design of our visual system according to a set of deep principles. Our challenge now is to see them clearly.””

—The Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2009

”“Throughout the book, Changizi peppers his explanations with quick, fascinating visual exercises that help to drive his points home … Changizi’s theories are appealing and logical, and he backs them with good circumstantial evidence. … One thing is certain: The Vision Revolution will make you wonder the next time you notice someone blush, catch a ball or finish reading a magazine page.””

—Scientific American MIND, July 2009

”“Changizi focuses on why humans have evolved such visual ‘superpowers’ as color vision and binocularity. His answers are surprising, overturning theories that have dominated primatology since the 1970s … Readers, however, need not be well versed in academic debates to enjoy Changizi’s lucid explanations. Filled with optical illusions and simple experiments for the reader to perform, this book may be the most fun you’ll have learning about human cognition and evolution.””

—Barnes & Noble Spotlight Review, July 13, 2009

”“… most imaginative, creative and entertaining … This book will no doubt offer a revolutionary view on our daily experience of visual perception.””

—Shinsuke Shimojo, Professor in Biology/Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology

”“Changizi has the unique ability to draw the reader into asking the most fundamental questions of ‘why’ rather than the more mundane ones of ‘how’…””

—Romi Nijhawan, Reader in Psychology, Sussex University

”“This is a book that will open your eyes to the amazing feats of visual perception.””

—Michael A. Webster, Foundation Professor of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno

”“… [Changizi] fleshes out his findings and provides a fresh take on many key issues in perception.””

—Robert Deaner, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Grand Valley State University

”“… a book full of invention and originality. … If you want to learn how to think outside of the box, then this is a book for you.””

—Peter Lucas, Professor of Anthropology, George Washington University

”“… one of the most original accounts of vision … novel ideas that are sure to radically change your mind about the way vision works.””

—Stanislas Dehaene, head of the CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory
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Mark Changizi is an evolutionary neurobiologist aiming to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. His research focuses on ““why”” questions, and he has made important discoveries such as on why we see in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are shaped as they are, why the brain is organized as it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they do, and why the dictionary is organized as it is.

He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and then went on to the University of Virginia for a degree in physics and mathematics, and to the University of Maryland for a PhD in math. In 2002, he won a prestigious Sloan-Swartz Fellowship in Theoretical Neurobiology at Caltech, and in 2007, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2010, he took the post of Director of Human Cognition at a new research institute called 2ai Labs.

He has more than 30 scientific journal articles, some of which have been covered in news venues such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Wired. He has written three books, The Brain From 25,000 Feet (Kluwer 2003), The Vision Revolution (BenBella 2009), and Harnessed (BenBella 2011).

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