Lets start with this: Every fraction of a second, all of the atoms that make up the things around you will not be in the same place, nor will they be in the exact same configuration. They will have also decayed slightly and thus will be different.
Just like every sky that you look at will never be the same again (so slow down and enjoy every one of them), so too it is with everything around you. Nothing is what it was a nanosecond ago. It may be similar, and to your eyes and brain, the change may be so infinitesimally small that it is completely imperceptible, but it IS different.
Also, anything that you see is only the reflection of light bouncing off of that thing. Light, as fast as it is, still takes time to travel; from the object being viewed, through the air, and to your eyes. Additionally, your brain has to process that reflection of light into something recognizable.
You can only see the past. What was, not what is.
- The light that is being reflected into your eyes, is not the object at which you are looking. It is simply a reflection of light.
- Side note: The colors that you see do not actually represent that object's color either. The object is just a gray mass. The colors that you see are merely the portion of the entire spectrum of light which is reflected by that object. (Your shoes aren't blue, they just reflect blue)
The object that you are looking at, cannot actually be seen. The only thing that your eyes can see is light, and how it reflects off of everything around you.
Without light, there is nothing. Complete and utter darkness.
Sure, if you could somehow survive without light, you would still feel, taste, smell and touch. But nothing would be visible. You would be blind.
The truth is that you are blind now.
- The light reflection which travels into your eyes must be processed by your brain into something recognizable.
Imagine the frustration when you're a baby. Everything you see is alien. You recognize nothing at first. Slowly, you build up an inventory of information which can be remembered as the things you know when you see them. (It's like this with all of your senses)
But how do I know, that what I see is what you see?
Yes, we may agree that the shoes are blue, but what shade of blue do you see, and what shade of blue do I see? Does your blue look like what orange does to me, or is it just a darker shade? Could it be exactly the same? Not likely.
- It takes time for light to travel, as does it take time for even the fastest brain to process information.
The farther you are from an object, the further in the past it is what you see. If you were to look at me through a telescope, from across the galaxy (lets pretend that a telescope with this power exists) you would be looking at a memory of me.
I would long be dead and gone and merely a memory for those that are still on my planet. Depending on the distance, the planet on which you are watching me would be hundreds, if not thousands, of years further into its future.
Because you are only seeing my reflection. And again, as fast as light is, it is still not instantaneous.
So if I lived on a planet 1,000 light years away, and you had a telescope capable of magnifying that distance, you would be seeing 1,000 years into the past of that planet. You could never see it in "real time." For all you know, that planet may not even be there anymore. Swallowed by a supernova.
Now, as you get closer, you witness this on a much smaller scale, but it is similar nonetheless.
From the Sun - Light from the sun takes approx. 8.3 minutes to reach us.
From the Moon - Light reflected off of the moon takes approx. 1.3 seconds to reach us.
From 1 Mile Away - 1/186,000 of a second
From 10 Feet Away - 1/98,357,105.6 of a second
- Finally, now that we know that everything that we see is in the past, remember that your brain has to process that information.
Now, we have things remembered. What you remember blue looking like. A recognized shape, pattern or collection of shapes and patterns.
But all that you see is simply a construction of your own mind. Your brain turns what you see into a perceived reality.
So even if you could "see" things real time, you'd still be creating your reality around you with your brain.
