The more of me there is, the less you can see. What am I?

Our ability to perceive the world around us is fundamentally tied to light. Vision occurs when light rays reflect off objects and enter our eyes, where specialized cells convert these light stimuli into electrical signals. These signals are then transmitted through the optic nerves to our brain, which interprets them as the visual images we "see". Therefore, darkness, by its very definition, is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination or a significant absence of visible light.

When there is an increase in darkness, it means there is less light available to reflect off objects. Without these reflective light signals, our eyes and brain receive minimal to no visual information to process, directly leading to a decrease in what we can discern. Our eyes contain two main types of photoreceptor cells: rods and cones. Cones are responsible for color vision and work best in bright light, while rods are highly sensitive to dim light and help us see in low-light conditions, primarily detecting shades of gray and motion.

While our eyes possess an amazing capacity for adaptation, such as pupils dilating to allow more light in during dim conditions, even the highly sensitive rod cells require some photons of light to be stimulated. In a truly dark environment, where there is a complete absence of visible light, there is simply nothing for these cells to detect. Consequently, the more profound the darkness, the less visual information our brain receives, and the less we are able to see.