  Why do we sometimes perceive static images as if they were moving? Visual
motion illusions enjoy a sustained popularity, yet there is no definitive
answer to the question of why they work. We present a generative model, the
Evolutionary Illusion GENerator (EIGen), that creates new visual motion
illusions. The structure of EIGen supports the hypothesis that illusory motion
might be the result of perceiving the brain's own predictions rather than
perceiving raw visual input from the eyes. The scientific motivation of this
paper is to demonstrate that the perception of illusory motion could be a side
effect of the predictive abilities of the brain. The philosophical motivation
of this paper is to call attention to the untapped potential of "motivated
failures", ways for artificial systems to fail as biological systems fail, as a
worthy outlet for Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life research.
