Why is HD or 3D so impressive on a flat screen, but we walk around in real life with the highest definition possible and the most realistic 3D and it's completely mundane?

penquin , 11 hours ago

Because we are on autopilot. We don’t concentrate on what we were born with. It’s a part of us. There is actually a word for it that I can’t remember. You don’t look at everything on your way to work. You just get there and don’t even think about it.

theywilleatthestars , 11 hours ago

We see the world around us every day

finley , 11 hours ago

I have a pretty shitty life, but even I don’t consider my real life to be mundane.

The real world is full of so much glorious beauty and wonder, it constantly blows my mind.

I left to wonder, why don’t you see any of this?

FireWire400 , 12 hours ago (edited 12 hours ago)

I guess we just didn’t expect to see this kind of realism from a TV screen until it came out, it was a totally new arguably ground-braking thing. Especially with fictional media, which is why James Cameron’s Avatar was so great in 3D (despite being utterly boring IMO).

Think about it, the first HD television broadcasts started in the early 90s in Japan. How exciting that must’ve been. They even got HD movies in the form of Hi-Vision Laserdiscs.

averyminya , 2 hours ago

I feel like it’s the perspective that matters? Yes, we go through life seeing “higher resolution” in real life, but recreating this through pixels on a screen is a different medium. Going even further, if we take the next step and look at VR, suddenly we have real life competing with something that was previously unable to be experienced (more than once, at least.). Like, you can get a lightweight experience of what it’s like to fall off of a tall building. We can do it in real life. We can do it in a 2D/3D game. And we can do it in VR. The “real” feelings we get of this happening in reality aren’t quite the same as they are in VR, although it comes close, and likewise aren’t the same in monitor gaming, but again can come close. Our brains are interesting that way. My stomach is able to drop when falling from tall heights in games, despite in real life not actually being falling, or even moving in the slightest.

So I think it comes down to it being the medium and what it’s presented with.

dustyData , 11 hours ago

Habituation. We get used to seeing the same things all the time. When you do novelty or high adrenaline experiences your perception changes. Try jumping with a parachute out of a plane, or a high altitude zip lining, driving a race car around a track, etc. Aftewards you experience a sense of heightened perception and appreciation.