Donebrach t1_iugdysq wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:53 AM

Think of it like plumbing in a house. Generally most faucets and fixtures are close to each other to save on resources. Sure sometimes things get branched out as necessary but why bother moving the eyes down to the butt unless the majority of some hypothetical sexual deviant species really got off on Butt-eyes.

Dependent-Law7316 t1_iugepoo wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:00 AM

Plus, having sensory organs close to the brain reduces the distance those inputs have to travel. Nervous signals are fast but they do take measure able amounts of time based on how far they must travel. When fractions of a second can mean life and death, getting all the info to your brain quickly means you’re likely to live longer than your butt-eyed peers.

Donebrach t1_iugfejj wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:06 AM

Unless, of course, the enemy has come for dat ass.

bjanas t1_iui1y6d wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:24 PM

I mean, a study I posted in another comment found that the lag was something like .27 ms/cm of extra distance. So, in the grand scheme of things, it's basically negligible.

zharknado t1_iugt8s3 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:35 AM

Also an interesting tradeoff between efficient protection and redundancy. E.g. if we had eyes on all our fingers we’d probably be ok to lose a few, but also a lot more likely to lose a few.

Eyes, ears, noses, and tongues take a lot of energy to make and maintain, so having them all in one “take extra good care of this” spot is a pretty good strategy.