Is the Human Eye Badly Designed? Some believe that the human eye
is badly designed because the sensors are wired from the front
rather than from the back (as in, say, an octopus). I would like
to try and demonstrate that the eye is adequately designed for
its purpose. Many designs have conflicting requirements.
Consider the following case: The fastening mechanism on the
Tower of London gate merely has to keep it secure so that the
designer could make it as substantial as he could with the
available materials. He was therefore able to construct a
fastener which might last 1000 years or more and survive the
efforts of bad guys with a battering ram trying to defeat it.
Conversely the designers of the catch on the cargo door of a 747
airliner had to ensure that there was an equal chance of it not
opening but they were far more constrained by weight and size.
The Tower of London guy would have laughed at this mechanism if
he had seen it in Henry VIII's day but the design is (or should
be) adequate for the purpose.