Does the Invisible Man have to be blind?

[stratego]

Does the Invisible Man have to be blinded, or at least see things differently from the average person? If he was invisible, light would pass right through the back of his eyes without being reflected. Of course he could allow only visible lights to pass, but that means he'll need to see in ultraviolet or infrared.

 

[Perfection]

Does the Invisible Man have to be blinded, or at least see things differently from the average person? If he was invisible, light would pass right through the back of his eyes without being reflected. Of course he could allow only visible lights to pass, but that means he'll need to see in ultraviolet or infrared.

Well, his retinas could be modified to emit captured light.

Of course, first we'd need to make the man invisable...

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Perhaps he's not invisible, just brilliantly camoflaged?

 

[Mise]

He could have very very small eyes.

 

[LLXerxes]

i guess so...

 

[BasketCase]

It depends on the exact physics that make the Invisible Man invisible.

In the original version, the Invisible Man (Griffin) describes the process by which he was able to render inert matter transparent and colorless. Naturally, he doesn't describe HOW. If the process causes light to be bent around the object, then the light doesn't actually hit it and so no light could reach an invisible person's eyes. However, if the process renders matter truly transparent, vision is still possible. The windows of your house still absorb light (and become warm as a result) even if you can't see the glass.

In the end, since the story doesn't describe how it works, we must accept that the Invisible Man can see because the script says he can.

 

[Arminius]

A queer question... But I would think he would be able to see.

 

[PantheraTigris2]

Well, whatever/however he sees, he sees it all the time, because his eyelids are invisible! A good candidate for a sleeping mask, I suppose.

Note that I am actually taking this more seriously than the 'Bigfoot' thread.

 

[Mise]

The windows of your house still absorb light (and become warm as a result) even if you can't see the glass.

It's not that hard to see a pane of glass walking down the street...

In the end, since the story doesn't describe how it works, we must accept that the Invisible Man can see because the script says he can.

Never! I shall not rest until all sci-fi plot holes are filled! Like people who can walk through matter, but don't fall through the floor

 

[betazed]

if seeing is defined as having an organ that responds to electromagnetic waves then by definition an invisible man is blind to all wavelengths that he is invisible to.

however, if seeing is defined as constructing a 3d model of our immediate environs using sensory inputs then an invisible man need be not at all blind. Active sonar or inactive sonar (as in bats and dolphins and submarines) can create 3d models without using light.

 

[Perfection]

if seeing is defined as having an organ that responds to electromagnetic waves then by definition an invisible man is blind to all wavelengths that he is invisible to.

Depends on how you define invisable, he could absorb it at the retina and emit it at the other side, and would still appear invisable.

 

[FearlessLeader2]

If the Invisible Man were merely transparent, but able to absorb enough light to see, he would be visible as a distortion, having a refractive index greater than 0. If only his retinas were so treated, he would be blinded by light coming in at them from every which way.

A psionically invisible man would of course be utterly non-existent to anyone he was acting on, and anyhting he did would appear to be the act of poltergeists, as his presence was edited out of the victims' perceptions.

Only psionic invisibility would allow sight to the invisible person. Physical invisibility would disrupt vision.

 

[BassDude726]

maybe the invisible man was made invisible simply by shifting the time in which he existed by fractions of a second. He wouldn't exist in the present, so he would be invisible. I remember some episode of STTNG where they did this to Data and he was still able to communicate with people in the present.

 

[Siegmund]

In order to see, he has to absorb light and convert it to information.

In order to not be seen, the absence of that light must not be noticed. That means a rather complicated system of producing and radiating additional light, in such a direction that it looks like it passed through completely undisturbed.

I've a feeling there might be a Heisenberg-type argument that this is impossible to achieve perfectly. But a reasonable approximation would be doable - and is even done, crudely, with such things as video monitors to help the driver of a tank see where he is going without sticking his head out - looking at a screen that "looks like it is a window".

Even if you do that, of course, there are still ways to detect the invisible man.

 

[Smidlee]

Does the Invisible Man have to be blinded, or at least see things differently from the average person? If he was invisible, light would pass right through the back of his eyes without being reflected. Of course he could allow only visible lights to pass, but that means he'll need to see in ultraviolet or infrared.

What a cool Sci-Fi question.
that's the reason "the invisible man" can only be found in the Sci-Fi section.

 

[Yuri2356]

Even if you do that, of course, there are still ways to detect the invisible man.

Of course, the fact that he still physicaly exists makes him easily detectable. In the novel, he could never travell in Rain or snow, because people would be able to see the 'gap' where his body is!

Anywhoo, I'm favoring the Idea that his retinas still manage to gather information from light as it passes through them, creating a barley visible distortion.

 

[FearlessLeader2]

Of course, the fact that he still physicaly exists makes him easily detectable. In the novel, he could never travell in Rain or snow, because people would be able to see the 'gap' where his body is!

Anywhoo, I'm favoring the Idea that his retinas still manage to gather information from light as it passes through them, creating a barley visible distortion.

But if the light comes at his retinas from every which-way, it will be a big blur.

 

[Mise]

But if the light comes at his retinas from every which-way, it will be a big blur.

He could have eyes on his feet. That way, they'd only come from one general direction, and the distortion would be even less visible.

 

[Yuri2356]

But if the light comes at his retinas from every which-way, it will be a big blur.

He would Either see in all directions at once (Which would be quite confusing, considdering how the eye is designed) or his eyes would somehow only absorb light coming from one direction, allowing it to pass through from all other directions. How that could possibly work, I have no idea.

 

[Mise]

Well if he can have a slightly visible region where his eye is, couldn't he have a slightly visible lens to focus the light just as our retinas focus it onto one spot from one direction?

Wouldn't he die of lack of vitamin D or something anyway?