Nemesis: why is Geordi so impressed with "normal" vision?

[alpha_leonis]

I'm colorblind (actually color-deficient -- I have less contrast between specific shades in some parts of the spectrum, so that I can see less of a color range than most people.) There are software "photo-filtering" programs available that allow me to "simulate" what I see. I ran a few photos through that software to show my wife, and her impression was that the "filtered" images looked "washed out". She says she definitely wouldn't want to live with my kind of vision, because it just doesn't look "complete".

Comparing this to Geordi, who can see a much wider range of the spectrum than most humans, due to his Visor. In short, he can see a lot of "colors" that aren't accessible to most humans. But in Nemesis, he gets the chance to see with normal human eyes for a short time -- and he loves it.

I don't get it. From his perspective it's like he's suddenly seeing with the most massive colorblindness filter in history. If I were him I'd be scrambling to get my visor back!

 

[borgboy]

I don't think Geordi's vision with his visor is as good or something than regular sight. I think it's more informative, but less "real".

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I believe it's Insurrection where Geordie temporarily grows eyes. And it was established in season one ("The Naked Now", I think) that Geordie's own perspective of his condition is that he sees more than the human eye, but he doesn't consider it better. Later in "Heart of Glory," we see what Geordie sees, which is nothing like human vision. They also establish in season two that the VISOR causes him some discomfort (possibly a non issue now that he has ocular implants). From his perspective, growing new eyes, even temporarily is probably the realization of a life long dream, even if it may be a loss of ability.

 

[alpha_leonis]

And oops, I put this thread in the wrong forum. Mods, can you please move?

 

[Cyke101]

Comparing this to Geordi, who can see a much wider range of the spectrum than most humans, due to his Visor. In short, he can see a lot of "colors" that aren't accessible to most humans.

But can he see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Actually I'm with the OP on this one. It was something that originally bothered in "Hide and Q" when Geordi gets his sight for a moment and tells Tasha "You're as beautiful as I imagined and more!"

And I suddenly realized, Geordi was BORN blind, he's never seen anything without the visor... so what exactly would he have imagined Tasha looked like? Methinks his real imagination would have probably rendered something that looked a lot like the visor image, in which case, there's no reason to imagine anything.

I actually think that scene would have made a lot more sense if Geordi takes off his visor, looks around the room and says "Is this what you all see when you look at the world? Man, this is... I can't even... Tasha? What?! <looks her up and down> I can't even see through your... um... Riker, Make me the way I was! Please!"

 

[M'Sharak]

And oops, I put this thread in the wrong forum. Mods, can you please move?

Sure can.

Hold on just a moment...

 

[Mytran]

Seeing without constant pain has to be attractive.

Also, of the things that Geordi wants to do, seeing a sunset comes up a lot. Through his VISOR, it's possibly not that remarkable a sight. Maybe he wants to see what all the fuss is about?

 

[JarodRussell]

Usually, people are also impressed by "different". He saw the world this way for his whole life, and finally got the chance to see it in a different... light. It's not better or worse, it's impressive nonetheless.

 

[Melakon]

Geordi's always been pretty diplomatic. He probably pretended he liked "normal" vision better so as to not hurt "normal" people's feelings.

 

[alpha_leonis]

Seeing without constant pain has to be attractive.

Also, of the things that Geordi wants to do, seeing a sunset comes up a lot. Through his VISOR, it's possibly not that remarkable a sight. Maybe he wants to see what all the fuss is about?

That doesn't seem right. In other parts of the spectrum Geordi would be able to see a lot of other things, like the star's corona which isn't visible for us. I believe he could also see its magnetic field. That sounds a lot more interesting than just the "big bright blob" that a human with normal eyes could see.

 

[Mytran]

You're probably right. But that would make it even more compelling to find out what normal sighted people were harping on about! ;-)

 

[Crazy Eddie]

You're probably right. But that would make it even more compelling to find out what normal sighted people were harping on about! ;-)

I still maintain that after the initial thrill of finally having "normal" vision, Geordi would probably find the entire experience somewhat disappointing.

It's all sort of based on his drunken rant in "Naked Now" when he says "I see more, but more isn't better." Since he doesn't actually have a point of comparison to make that statement, his line in Insurrection would be "I guess more is better."

 

[Armored Saint]

Comparing this to Geordi, who can see a much wider range of the spectrum than most humans, due to his Visor.

Sir, Lieutenant La Forge's eyes are far superior to human biological eyes. True? Then why are not all human officers required to have their eyes replaced with cybernetic implants?

You can move really fast when you drive a car, but I suppose you would really sad to lose your ability to walk.

 

[Morpheus 02]

If I am interpreting right...Geordi's VISOR vision is like getting overwhelming info that he has to sort through.

It'd be like living life with constantly having loud background noise. You might be able to downplay it for certain instances, but it's still there. The new eyes helps him focus his vision.

If they every did revision to TNG (like they did with TOS), it'd be nice to see more instances of Geordi's visual perspective

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Comparing this to Geordi, who can see a much wider range of the spectrum than most humans, due to his Visor.

Sir, Lieutenant La Forge's eyes are far superior to human biological eyes. True? Then why are not all human officers required to have their eyes replaced with cybernetic implants?

You can move really fast when you drive a car, but I suppose you would really sad to lose your ability to walk.

But we're discussing a person who was born without legs and could never walk in the first place. What is there to be sad about?

 

[starburst]

Geordi says "I've never seen a sunrise. At least not the way you see them." in the film so while he has the ability to see as his parents, friends, family and crew mates do he wanted to take the opportunity to see it for himself.

I'm sure with his VISOR or implants a sunrise is an impressive sight, but if you have never seen one the 'conventional' way wouldn't you be excited to experience it for yourself?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

What was presented to us during TNG as Geordie-vision never seemed right.

The way it's been described was, that He sees all we see and then some.

So the way I imagine it is, that he sees the entire visual spectrum but in a condensed way. The blue side of the spectrum shifted towards red and the red toward blue to fit in the wider range of ultraviolet, infrared, etc.
Or at least that's how it should have been presented.
A drawback could be that he loses spectrum resolution. Where we can differentiate between a ton of shades of green for example, to Geordie it would just be simply green.
Also "pixel" resolution might be a factor. He had the ability to zoom in at least with the implants, which is awesome, but the picture quality could be like VHS compared to 4K.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Geordi says "I've never seen a sunrise. At least not the way you see them." in the film so while he has the ability to see as his parents, friends, family and crew mates do he wanted to take the opportunity to see it for himself.

I'm sure with his VISOR or implants a sunrise is an impressive sight, but if you have never seen one the 'conventional' way wouldn't you be excited to experience it for yourself?

That's exactly my point: Geordi has come to think of normal vision as being "the conventional way" and thinks of himself as an anomaly rather than establishing his own normalcy (e.g. normal for Geordi). He therefore has exactly the same problem as Data: his number one aspiration in life is to shed whatever characteristic sets him apart from other people -- even if those characteristics give him a huge personal advantage -- and become exactly like everyone else.

To nurture a deep yearning for conformity -- especially when that yearning manifests as a desire to eliminate traits that are not actually disadvantageous to you -- is NOT healthy behavior. It would be one thing if Geordi lost his sight at an early age and has been using the visor as a substitute, or if the visor wasn't as good as normal vision, or even if there was some kind of social stigma on Earth AGAINST blind people (at least then his desire would have some logical basis). But there isn't: it's a trait he was born with, adapted to, and has actually converted into something of an advantage. Wishing to eliminate that advantage in order to fit in to an imaginary standard of normalcy is, if nothing else, a severe character weakness.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

What was presented to us during TNG as Geordie-vision never seemed right.

The way it's been described was, that He sees all we see and then some.

So the way I imagine it is, that he sees the entire visual spectrum but in a condensed way. The blue side of the spectrum shifted towards red and the red toward blue to fit in the wider range of ultraviolet, infrared, etc.
Or at least that's how it should have been presented.
A drawback could be that he loses spectrum resolution. Where we can differentiate between a ton of shades of green for example, to Geordie it would just be simply green.
Also "pixel" resolution might be a factor. He had the ability to zoom in at least with the implants, which is awesome, but the picture quality could be like VHS compared to 4K.

That would be to assume the VISOR has inferior visual quality as normal eyesight, which is 1) something Geordi has absolutely no way to know and no basis for comparison and 2) probably not the case, since we know his visor is capble of detecting microfractures and metal fatigue in solid objects and is pretty good at determining the details of those features.

More to the point: if Geordi actually wanted to see what normal people see, it wouldn't be hard to adjust his visor to only show him the visual spectrum within the normal (for a human, anyway) color spectrum. The only reason not to leave his VISOR on that setting all the time is because he would find that way too limiting and likes being able to see such a broad range of detail (who wouldn't?).

My personal theory? Geordi only uses his "I wanna see like you!" schtick to pick up women. Which is why the only time he really does this is when he's very VERY drunk (Naked Now) or putting on a show for Riker (Hide and Q, where he immediately uses it as an excuse to hit on Tasha).

And Insurrection is just Insurrection.