When Machines See: Mechanical Eyes and the Intimacy of Perception

The way we see is shaped by our emotions, knowledge, and social training. What happens when machines begin to see?

“When in love,” John Berger famously wrote, “the sight of the beloved has a completeness which no words and no embrace can match: a completeness which only the act of making love can temporarily accommodate.” What Berger has on his mind is the reciprocal relation between our emotions and perception. Think about someone you fell out of love with. Do they…