[OT] Static typing and split brains research

[Anton Vredegoor]

One of the fascinating abilities of the human brain is to construct a
perceptual reality for us, with perceived continuity and integrality
where in fact there is no such thing. 

If certain parts of the perceptual field are not available our brain
just fools us into seeing a complete perceptual field. For example
there is a place on the human retina where the optical nerve blocks
sensory input. It is easily possible to find ones blind spot if one
knows about this fact and if one has an idea about where it is in the
visual field. Normally however, one is unaware of it.

Some research with epilepsy patients who had their corpus callosum -a
kind of mechanism linking the left and right hemispheres of the brain-
split in order to prevent attacks gives further clues.

The patients have a split visual field so that what is to their left
is seen by their right hemisphere and what is to their right is seen
by their left hemisphere. When asked about things visible in the
hemisphere without the *linguistic* abilities these patients respond
that they see nothing. However when asked to point to a picture of the
unseen object they almost always "guess" right.

Somehow the brain is able to fill in the blanks if information is not
available and conversely it is able to *use* information that we are
not even consciously aware of.

So after this long intro I would like to make the link to programmers
that are using some kind of programming language and getting results
consistent with their world view. Once one has decided that static
typing is necessary and accordingly uses a statically typed language
the brain just fills in the details and the programmer lives in a
consistent world. The same goes for dynamically typed languages of
course.

Now imagine a situation where ones job is dependent on "believing" in
some kind of information technology infrastructure. Now we don't even
have the option to believe otherwise, because it would damage our
career opportunities.

In these circumstances it is incredibly hard to gather scientific
evidence about programmer productivity as correlated to the use of
certain programming languages. But at least we now have begun to
understand *why* that is so hard. I hope someone fills in the blanks
of this theory :-)

BTW, for a more artistic corollary of this idea I strongly advise to
read "A Voyage to Arcturus" by David Lindsay, see f.e.

http://www.litrix.com/arcturus/arctu001.htm

Where the main character travels to a distant world where -among other
things- peoples world views are changing because of new sets of
sensory equipment.

Anton