The visual system has evolved to compensate for neural delays, allowing it to generate perceptions of what will occur one-tenth of a second into the future, so that when an observer actually perceives something, it is the present rather than what happened one-tenth of a second ago.

Using his hypothesis, called “perceiving-the-present,” Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mark Changizi was able to systematically organize and explain more than 50 types of visual illusions that occur because our brains are trying to perceive the near future.