system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does damage to eyes not become apparent immediately and takes time ranging from a night's sleep to years to show up?

Read a few posts in an AMA request where people say it took years to see the damage in the eyes from viewing a earlier eclipse without appropriate protection.
gpt
It's like a sunburn. At first, it's just all red and painful (but your retina has no pain receptors, so it doesn't hurt). The next day, your skin is literally falling off your body. In that time, the damaged cells were figuring out that irreparable damage had occurred and that they might be cancerous. When they do, they enter mass suicide mode.