Indeed, natural scenes tend to contain more visual information than do built ones—and this abundance of visual stimulation is a condition we humans crave. Roughly a third of the neurons in the brain’s cortex are dedicated to visual processing; it takes considerable visual novelty to satisfy our eyes’ voracious appetite. But balanced against this desire to explore is a desire to understand; we seek a sense of order as well as an impression of variety. Nature meets both these needs, while artificial settings often err on one side or the other.
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