What If We Had Thermal Vision?

WHAT IF

Imagine a world where we didn't need any lights, where we could detect diseases just by looking at someone, and literally see right through people's deceptions.

Transcript

00:00 Imagine a world where we didn't need any light.

00:08 Where we could detect diseases just by looking at someone,

00:11 and literally see right through people's deceptions.

00:15 These are just some of the possibilities

00:17 that come along with thermal imaging technology.

00:20 But what if we didn't need cameras or clunky goggles

00:23 to see the world this way?

00:25 What if that was just the way our eyes worked?

00:28 Would it make us a stronger species?

00:30 This is WHAT IF,

00:32 and here's what would happen if we had thermal vision.

00:36 Our vision works according to a pretty basic system.

00:40 If an object emits or reflects light, then we can see it.

00:43 If it doesn't, then it's invisible to us.

00:46 Pretty simple, right?

00:47 Well, pretty simple until you realize that every object emits light.

00:51 Some just produce light that we can't see, called infrared.

00:55 Could our eyes ever adapt to see this light?

00:59 What would that reveal about the world around us?

01:04 In the most basic sense,

01:06 thermal imaging works by showing you the heat that radiates from an object.

01:10 It detects temperature by recognizing different levels of infrared light.

01:14 You've seen an example of this where bright red colors represent high temperatures,

01:19 and dull blue colors represent low temperatures.

01:22 But have you ever stopped to think how helpful it would be

01:25 to see the world like this?

01:27 Well, for starters, life would probably get a lot safer.

01:30 Search and rescue missions would be easier,

01:32 as police officers could easily scan large areas for body heat.

01:36 Firefighters could see through smoke-filled rooms with no problem.

01:40 Our roads would be safer, since we'd be able to recognize animals or people

01:44 beyond the reach of our headlights.

01:46 If a burglar tried to break into your house,

01:48 there'd be no cover of darkness to hide in.

01:51 And if you caught anyone trying to rob you,

01:53 you'd be able to track them for a long distance as they ran away.

01:56 Scientifically, medical ailments would also be a lot easier to catch.

02:01 Things like diseases, circulation problems, infections,

02:04 and even cancers cause temperature changes that would quickly be detected.

02:09 Our newfound vision wouldn't just help fight the things that plague our bodies,

02:12 but also our minds.

02:14 Your nervous system is continually tweaking your blood flow based on your emotions.

02:19 With thermal vision, we'd be able to pick up on those fluctuations

02:22 just by looking at you.

02:24 If someone gets anxious or scared, their nose would look blue,

02:27 because all the blood is flowing away from the outer layer of the body

02:31 to fuel their muscles for fight or flight.

02:33 Some psychologists are already using thermal cameras

02:36 to recognize these signs to help patients with PTSD.

02:40 Not everyone has access to thermal cameras,

02:42 but if everyone had thermal vision, then a lot more people could be helped.

02:47 With all these benefits in mind,

02:48 scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine

02:51 decided to test if anything could be done to get our eyes to see infrared light.

02:56 They found that the human eye could only recognize infrared light

03:00 when it gets flooded by huge amounts of infrared photons over a short period of time,

03:05 making the idea of everyday thermal vision pretty unrealistic.

03:09 Even if it was possible for our eyes to recognize this light,

03:13 experts say that our vision wouldn't be great.

03:16 Our eyes are covered in warm blood vessels that emit their own light,

03:20 which would be stronger than the incoming signals from external sources.

03:24 In essence, it would be like constantly trying to look out into the night

03:28 from a brightly lit room.

03:29 Maybe one day we could overcome this problem by mounting our eyes on cold antennae.

03:34 But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.

03:38 [MUSIC]

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