https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/04/30/the-birth-of-the-cool/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 06:57:14 -0400<![CDATA[Signal processing is part and parcel of what we see.  The retina is in fact actually composed of brain cells and interpretation plays a part from the first instant of perception. Because the image it receives is optically inverted and the data arrives faster than it can be processed, the brain adjusts the information before we &#8220;see&#8221; it in our minds.  &#8220;The retina, unlike a camera, does not simply send a picture to the brain. The retina spatially encodes (compresses) the image to fit the limited capacity of the optic nerve.&#8221; It does this in part, by sending the changes in a visual image rather than the entire dataset containing the static parts of the image.]]>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:26:08 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2012/04/30/the-birth-of-the-cool-n191609