Near the turn of the twentieth century, several distinguished astronomers reported the observation of “channels” or “canals” on Mars. These canals, as planetary features, don’t all (e.g., Amundson 2017; Brasch 2018; Sheehan 1988). Rather, as discussed in a previous SI article (Sharps 2018), the “observation” of these canals derived from psychological factors in the minds of the observers.
Our present research focuses on the ways in which these psychological factors can literally alter subjective reality to the point that people see things that aren’t there at all. Including canals. Making this happen is easier than one might think.
One of the most important reporters of the canal phenomenon was the great planetary astronomer Percival Lowell. Like many responsible scientists of his day, Lowell saw the “canals” as artificial water channels designed by something like little green men with little green civil engineering degrees. Lowell thought that these alien hydrologists were trying to save their increasingly desiccated desert civilization by shipping water around in their extraterrestrial canals (see especially Amundson 2017; Brasch 2018); however, even in Lowell’s day—and even with this heroic if somewhat melodramatic alien backstory—many scientists did not find the canals convincing.