Optical illusions fool us because of the way we make predictions about size and distance Mario Gyb/Alamy
The Experience Machine
Andy Clark (Allen Lane)
ON A building site, there is a scream of pain. A worker has jumped down from scaffolding and landed on a long nail that is now emerging from the top of his boot. In clear agony, the man is taken to hospital, where his footwear is cut away to reveal that the nail passed between his toes without even breaking the skin. The pain was entirely in the man’s …
