Doc Searls Weblog

2 responses to “Eye Day”

1. 

   Laurence Brevard

   February 14, 2026 at 6:58 am

   I’m now 77 and will be 78 in March this year (2026).

   [ASIDE: Not relevant to this post, but I knew Chris (RageBoy) Locke from back in the ’80s – what a guy! It was weird to watch him lose his mind in public and tragic to watch how things were at the end. I would have liked to see Mystic Bourgeoisie fleshed out.]

   In 2007 at age 59 my RIGHT eye was done with a lens with new dual-focus technology by a very high end eye surgeon in Los Altos Hills who was also a professor and researcher at UCSF.

   This was a guy with astonishing self-esteem and kind of a prick. I saw him initially about getting a lens with “accommodation” (the ability to be focused) but he explained the total range of focus would disappoint me and recommended the new dual-focus instead. At least he understood that I knew about focal lengths, aperture, depth-of-field, prime focus and other optical terminology.

   Think of the technology as a Fresnel lens with 3/4 of the rings at the prime focus (maximum depth of field) for infinity and 1/4 set to a reading distance (~1 foot).

   This was not covered at all by insurance due to still being experimental.
   I paid $15,000 – 100% out of pocket.

   There was instant good vision in that right eye when I walked out of the day surgery.

   It took some time for my brain to learn which image to use. Distant was pretty easy and reading works well with lots of light. You do get some “interesting” artifacts, especially at night with oncoming headlights. I try to avoid night driving at this point but I can if I need to do so.

   BUT… The left eye with massive myopia and a steep progressive lens in my eyeglasses was left alone.

   The right lens in my eyeglasses was first just removed and then replaced with zero correction but same UV filtering and coatings.

   This lasted for five years.

   In 2012 at age 64 the left side had enough of a cataract to get that side done.

   Done this time with Medicare Advantage plan at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara with this new technology now readily available so… only $5,000 co-pay!

   Now both eyes are the same.

   Unfortunately there is a gap at about 3-5 feet without good focus – exactly to the screens at the computer unless I shove my face into the monitor. I wear over-the-counter +1.0 “readers” for that but don’t need glasses otherwise.

   HOWEVER… 5 years of drastically asymmetric vision left me with horrible close up depth perception. This causes me to repeatedly attempt to violate the Pauli Exclusion principle!

   Reply
   1. 

      Doc Searls

      February 14, 2026 at 11:59 am

      Thanks, Laurence!
      You’ve been through a lot of live-and-learn.
      I opted in 2013 (right) and yesterday (left) to go with simple fixed lenses for both eyes. As it happens both my eyes are spherical, so off-the-shelf lenses were the way to go.
      The first doctor was the go-to guy in Santa Barbara. I wanted to use him again, but I’m there too rarely, so I went with the Eye Center of Southern Indiana, which is something of a mill, but recommended by friends and my retinologist in Indianapolis. So far so good.
      I look forward to my left eye having useful vision, but the degree of swelling in the cornea, which presents as near-opacity, has me a bit freaked. The surgeon says it’ll be a few days before things clear up, but what I’m experiencing so far offers no encouragement. My left eye is essentially blind. Right now I’m wearing a bandana over it, because the way my brain superimposes left eye opacity over right eye clarity drives me nuts.
      We’ll see how it goes.
      As for Chris, I loved his RageBoy phase, and thought switching his obsessions to Mystic Bourgeosie was a useless waste of his immense talents. Did it really matter that the long-dead Rudolph Steiner was kinda nuts? Can you imagine what kind of fun he would be having now with the likes of Trump? Wow.

      Reply