NavList:

Patrick, you asked:
"What are the practical consequences of this for the navigator?"

Well, that's easy. Never stare at the flashing green dot. :)

This is a vivid demo of a fairly standard visual perception thing: if you can manage to focus steadily on one spot, everything you perceive visually will fade out in about ten seconds. I can do this willfully if I am very relaxed. I think most people can but this degree of relaxation usually corresponds with near-sleep, and the effect is similar to slowly closing one's eyes so you don't see the difference until you know the effect exists. Once you learn to recognize it, you can experiment with it as you're waking up in the morning. Normally our eyes have a natural jittering motion which prevents this fade-out.

-FER
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