A Plea for Commonality Without Common Points --With Reference to The Planet of the Apes

In the science fiction novel titled The Planet of the Apes （1963）, Pierre Boulle tells a story about a completely reversed world where the apes dominate the humans. Coming from the normal world that is ours, a small group of people is totally embarrassed and confused by observing this strange world. On the planet of the apes that they have discovered, it is the apes that are more intelligent than the humans. On the earth, it was the other way around. That observation results in their perplexity. The two communities, human and simian, bear with one another the relationship that corresponds to what Lotman calls ＂enantiomorphic pairings＂. In this context, a series of questions deserves to be raised： Is a ＂common language＂ possible between the two communities in the enantiomorphic pairings？ If the answer is yes, under what conditions could they succeed in opening up a space where they can have something in common？ In rereading The Planet of the Apes with reference to Lotman＇s semiotics of culture, we would like to formulate a response to those questions. Our claim is that the experience of finitude of one＇s own language can make possible an access to the new form of universality requisite for the cross-cultural communication： commonality without common points.

Corneal functional optical zone under monocular and binocular assessment

Background:In this retrospective randomized case series,we compared bilateral symmetry between OD and OS eyes,intercorneal differences and Functional Optical Zone(FOZ)of the corneal aberrations.Methods:Sixty-seven normal subjects(with no ocular pathology)who never had any ocular surgery were bilaterally evaluated at Augenzentrum Recklinghausen(Germany).In all cases,standard examinations and corneal wavefront topography(OPTIKON Scout)were performed.The OD/OS bilateral symmetry was evaluated for corneal wavefront aberrations,and FOZ-values were evaluated from the Root-Mean-Square(RMS)of High-Order Wavefront-Aberration(HOWAb).Moreover,correlations of FOZ,spherical equivalent(SE),astigmatism power,and cardinal and oblique astigmatism for binocular vs.monocular,and binocular vs.intercorneal differences were analyzed.Results:Mean FOZ was 6.56±1.13 mm monocularly,6.97±1.34 mm binocularly,and 7.64±1.30 mm intercorneal difference,with all strongly positively correlated,showing that the diameter of glare-free vision is larger in binocular than monocular conditions.Mean SE was 0.78±1.30 D,and the mean astigmatism power(magnitude)was 0.46±0.52 D binocularly.The corresponding monocular values for these metrics were 0.78±1.30 D and 0.53±0.53 D respectively.SE,astigmatism magnitude,cardinal astigmatism component,and FOZ showed a strong correlation and even symmetry;and oblique astigmatism component showed odd symmetry indicating Enantiomorphism between the left and right eye.Conclusions:These results confirm OD-vs.-OS bilateral symmetry(which influences binocular summation)of HOWAb,FOZ,defocus,astigmatism power,and cardinal and oblique astigmatism.Binocular Functional Optical Zone calculated from corneal wavefront aberrations can be used to optimize refractive surgery design.