People seem to experience a sensory field outside themselves [Velmans, 1993]. Sense experiences are at locations in three-dimensional space. Sense qualities are the type of thing that allows consciousness of space {sense qualities and mental space}. Experiencing mental space requires sense qualities.
The farthest surfaces, like the sky or distant mountains, seem to be a few kilometers away. The closest surfaces, like a book, appear smaller than their retinal visual angle indicates. Perhaps, rather than varying directly with distance, perceived sizes are logarithms of distances {surface distances and mental space}.
Gradient location-orientation histograms define surface textures. People assign depth using corresponding points in stereo or successive images and other monocular techniques {surface texture and depth}. Near objects have more texture details, and far objects have less texture details.
Windowpanes and perspective paintings represent depth and three-dimensional scenes in two dimensions, and their two-dimensional surfaces are apparent. If such surfaces have no reflection or any other property and so are invisible, they represent three-dimensional space perfectly {surface transparency and perspective}.
Scaling (zooming) maintains relative distances and angles {zooming and mental space} {scaling and mental space}. Zooming in can make a finite region equivalent to an infinite region, because the boundary becomes far away. Zooming out can make large regions smaller. Attention is like zooming.
1-Consciousness-Speculations-Space
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Date Modified: 2022.0225