Perhaps these examples of visual adaptation seem contrived, but you of course are aware of the fact that it takes some time to begin to be able to "see" in a dark room that you just stepped into. That simple experience has the heart of adaptation within it: a) The system has an adaptation timescale when the sensory capabilities are severely diminished and the system is "adapting" to a novel sensory environment, and b) that sensory systems are able to tell small differences away from the "mean" once the system has adapted.
You might still have many questions -- I hope you do (if even you wish to be inspired about how to ask questions then I would recommend watching
Feynman. Here are some questions that pop into my head right away:
- Does the adaptation time scale depend on the "distance" between the two environments?
- Is sensitivity to differences truly independent of the mean?
- What role does attention play in the adaptation timescale or the ability to be sensitive?
... I hope you have more.