One of the more interesting experiments utilized to study human perception operates as follows:

“…In one study, perceivers are asked to watch a video tape of a
basketball game and they are asked to count the number of times one
team takes possession of the ball [Simons & Chabris, in press]. During
the film clip, which lasts a few minutes, a person in a gorilla suit
strolls onto the center of the court, turns and faces the audience and
does a little jig. The gorilla then slowly walks off the court. The
remarkable fact is that perceivers (including this author) do not
notice the gorilla. This is an example of what has been called
inattentional blindness…”

The subjects, apparently so caught up in tracking the possession of the ball, are oblivious to the gorilla. While you can’t help but chuckle at the experiment, it does reveal some disturbing limitations of our ability to sense what is around us. And I can’t help wonder whether it’s possible that gorillas are all around us, and we humans, so caught up in the distractions of modern life, are oblivious to them. For example, have you ever gone to the gorilla enclosure at a zoo and not been able to see any gorillas? I would posit that this is because your brain has become so skilled at tuning out the image of gorillas that they have effectively become invisible.

As we know, thousands of children go missing each year — they vanish without a trace. I cannot definitively prove that they are being kidnapped by invisible gorillas who are raising them to be part of a human/gorilla army that will attack us in the year 2015, but the possibility is certainly there. It’s also possible that these human captives have helped the gorillas produce human suits the gorillas can wear to pass themselves off as people. It’s also possible that some of your closest friends and family are really gorillas wearing this suit. In fact, perhaps you are a gorilla.

It’s worth thinking about.