Why haven't we humans got one eye at the front of our heads and one at the back?

Question

it seems a waste to have them both at the front.

Answer 1

Because we are predators; we hunt more than we are hunted. Both eyes need to be in front for proper depth perception so we can catch our prey.

Answer 2

For one thing, evolution is based on random mutations, so not every trait is perfect.  Also, during development, the body become mostly symmetrical between the left and the right.  I don't remember the name of the process that causes this, but a left eye and a right eye would fit with this symmetry.  

Having two eyes in front is good for depth perception amongst primates.  Having eyes in back wouldn't add much and if you study the eyes of flies, you'll notice that they can see in multiple directions at once and still have both eyes in front.  Essentially, evolutionary preocesses have made two eyes in front more common and eyes in bak don't provide an evolutionary advantage.  

Answer 3

Just in terms of logic, it would be too confusing to try and take in two vastly different views.  I doubt the brain could cope.  We have to be looking either one way or another...we'd all have migraines otherwise!

:-)

Answer 4

I'm convinced that my mother does have at least one eye in the back of her head.

Answer 5

Having both eyes on the front of our heads give use binocular vision, which lets us judge distance.

This would have been most useful for our arboreal (lives in trees) ancestors, as they need to know how far away the next branch is.  Binocular vision is also very useful for hunting.

Answer 6

We need to have two eyes facing front for depth perception.  The two eyes are a bit away from each other so they see slightly different things, so we can tall how far away things are.

The real question is - Why do we only have a pair of eyes on the front of our head, and not have an additional pair of eyes in back?

Answer 7

bcoz that would be weird haha i'm kidding.

Here....we have both 2 eyes at the front of our heads bcoz each of the eyes have blind spot. By having 2 eyes at the same location, the blind spot is gone, each eye's visions can reveal the other's blind spot so the vision is completely opened.