Once again the reviewer is being deliberately obtuse!

What about the "off-cells" in the retina? Do they too respond to "black light"? Is it not also completely foreign to everyday perception to say that your retina responds positively to non-light as well as to light?

The perception of a "dark illuminant" from a certain direction is identically equal to the perception of the absence of illumination from that direction. The reason it is labeled a "dark illuminant" in this model is that that dark illumination information is propagated in the model in exactly the same manner as illumination information based on perceptual evidence.

It worries me that some of the heads of our academic institutions have the kind of narrow minded attitude exhibited by this particularly ignorant reviewer. Is there something in the selection process for an academic career that selects for those with this kind of Boolean positivistic attitude?