Earlier quoted context omitted.
> “A camera is supposed to take pictures of what it sees.” Feels like that’s just a matter of expectations. A phone used to be a device for voice communications. It’s right there in the Greek etymology, “phonē” for sound. But 95% of what people do today on devices called phones is something else than voice. Similarly, if people start using cameras more to produce images of things they want rather than what exists in…
Some of us want a record of what was, not a hallucination of what might have or could have been. Courts, for example. Forensic science was revolutionized by widespread adoption of photography leading to a reduction of the importance given to witnesses. Who also hallucinate what might have happened.
Yes, but that doesn’t imply “A camera is supposed to take pictures of what it sees”, only “cameras sometimes are supposed to take pictures of what they see”.
Some of us prefer a nice picture over a more exact record of what was; some of us will even argue that such manipulated pictures are better at capturing what was precisely because they sacrifice some of the physical reality for the non-physical essence of a moments one’s memory of such a moment.
That moon photo is a nice example. Smartphone cameras aren’t very good at capturing what the full moon looks like in our memory.