Colour is not real is it?

rubberduck

rubberduck

rubberduck

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Heya

Was partially inspired the 'what colour is this thread' but have been doing some thinking... Our brains perception of colour is not a real thing is it? What I mean by this is that how our brains interpret colour is based on a response to an arbitary wavelength of electromagnetic radiation that falls within the spectrum of wavelengths we call visible light... For example, if our brains had evolved differently and we percieved the wavelength that corresponds to red light as being blue and likewise the wavelength of light corresponding to blue as being red it would be no more 'correct' or 'wrong' than how we currently 'see' things... For a more extreme example we could perceive radio waves which are obviously invisible (to us) as being a colour and it would be no more correct scientifically than interpreting the visible spectrum that way (as we do).... I understand from an evolutionary perspetive why are eyes have evolved to interpret the 'visible spectrum' in the way we do but basically there is no scientific justification for what we call colour right?

What do you reckon?
 
Colour is real, there is a chance that what we actually see differs from person to person, nobody will ever know, you have forgotten to take your meds, go to bed. /thread
 
Sorry nothing to do with meds... colour only exists in our brains... Light photons have a wavelength and a frequency that is all. Our perception of (lets say) red does not exist beyond our brain.
 
Well it's a popular debate that ultimately leads nowhere as there is no proof. Your interpretation of red might be how I see blue. It's all arbitrary.
 
D3K said:
Well it's a popular debate that ultimately leads nowhere as there is no proof. Your interpretation of red might be how I see blue. It's all arbitrary.
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Which is exactly my point... While we know that no human can 'see' (lets say) microwaves there is no scientific reason that they are any more or less (let's say) yellow than the wavelength of light we interpret to be yellow. Right?
 
I've always found it intriguing that colour is a matter if perception. What i also have found incredibly interesting was when a friend of mind who took certain psycho-active drug described to me that he seeing new colours... I mean seriously i've never tryed it but can you imagine what it would feel like to see colours that dont exist?
 
colour is just our way of percieving things, there's no real reason why we see the colours we do representing the different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it's perfectly plausible to be able to interpret these differently and end up viewing the world as a negative.

although there is at least decent reasoning behind why we all interpret colours to be the same, outside of the odd illusion we're all pretty unanimous that red is red, green is green and this forum is yellow. i'd theorise that this is because as pre-evolved monkeys there was benefit to using colour as an identification of fruits, and as such we all evolved to see colour the same (well, with the exception of colour blind people, but that's a different reasoning).

it is an interesting thought as to what more colour there could be if we could percieve more of the spectrum, after all the devices we use to view invisible wavelengths are limited by the need to translate this into our limited colour pallete. that said, its probably a good thing, could you imagine how blindingly bright the world would be if we could see the whole spectrum? everything from cosmic radiation to man-made tv and phone signals this planet is a bright place.
 
steve45 said:
I've always found it intriguing that colour is a matter if perception. What i also have found incredibly interesting was when a friend of mind who took certain psycho-active drug described to me that he seeing new colours... I mean seriously i've never tryed it but can you imagine what it would feel like to see colours that dont exist?
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The make up of that post tells me you've had your fair share of mind altering drugs! :p
 
Colour of objects are the same in the scientific world, but how you see them depends on your vision.

Normal human vision can understand 3 primary colours. They're called cones. A red cone, green cone and blue cone. The colours mix down, the same as a monitor or TV. If you are red-green colour blind, then you still have the blue primary, but you lose either red or green which is why red/green is often confused. If you are totally colour blind, then you only have 1 primary and everything is in greyscale.

There is also the opposite, called Tetrachromacy. It's a very rare condition and in females only, and you get 4 primaries instead of 3. It's basically RGB plus yellow, so you see more definition in the RG side of the spectrum. Some animals have 4 primaries as well. Some fish for example have RGB plus UV.
 
I'm colourblind, though never been officially diagnosed. But I understand that we see colour in our minds, as long as our eyes are capable of seeing it.

I have a problem remembering a colour I've seen, and also when there are multiple shades of the same colour. Some of those shades to me look the same, while others look like a totally different colour.

I'm sure I read that men are more likely to be colour blind that women.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Didn't I hear on an Attenborough documentary that compared to a lot of animals we have crap eyesight and colour recognition?
I could have been drinking with Rubberduck though.
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well there are animals who can see things like uv (a lot of insects), and there are plenty of examples of humans being outdone in terms of visible range or ability to see in poor light.

that said, i recall hearing somewhere it only takes something like 2 photons for a human to percieve that there's been a flash of light.
 
Wanna respond to these particular parts of the comments:

Pawnless Endgame said:
There is also the opposite, called Tetrachromacy. It's a very rare condition and in females only, and you get 4 primaries instead of 3. It's basically RGB plus yellow, so you see more definition in the RG side of the spectrum. Some animals have 4 primaries as well. Some fish for example have RGB plus UV.
Click to expand...

BowdonUK said:
I'm sure I read that men are more likely to be colour blind that women.
Click to expand...

It is because Nature thinks females are more precious and gives females sometimes superior qualities. Another example is that females get more kidneys.



This topic is really interesting. It is like asking if the Universe and our lives are real or only fruit of our souls' imaginations.
Imagine the Universe as super bright, full of energy, 'place'.

At least, God gave us the opportunity to see the visible light only, and not radiowaves, etc, it would have been a very ugly world.
 
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