Colors?

[abstract449]

I had a topic that I've thoroughly over-thought whilst taking a shower today.

I'm sure may of you have thought about this before, but do you think it's possible that we see all and interpret colors differently, but we since we were all taught the same color and their names as children we've just learned to associate the name with the color we see? Like a blue for one person could be an orange to another, but they were taught to associate that color with the name blue. And if that was true, wouldn't darkness and light also have to be different in some way? And what about physical factors and evidence, like how darker surfaces attract more heat, and all that jazz about light rays in general? And what do you think would happen if children weren't taught the concept of colors?

my brain is quite fried at this point. What do you guys think?

[PassedExpectations]

oh my gosh this has puzzled me for ages! and when i try to ask people they usually get confused and tune out...

i think that it must be possible. and i read an article about how some people might actually be able to see more colors (sort of reverse color blindness).

i also wonder whether it applies to other senses... like if i was in someone elses head, would i be able to understand speech, or would someone speaking english sound like an alien language

[Feel_Good_inc.]

Maybe that's why certain people think they look good in certain colours while others think they look awful.

I remember an old episode of QI where this was brought up. Stephen Fry said that was a theory passing through the scientific community after researchers created a whole new colour, but only certain people could see it. Some people looked at it and were amazed while others looked and saw nothing.

I think that's what he said. It's been a long time since I saw that episode.

[mat]

Uhm. We all see colors the same but different . Say you have a red apple everyone can agree on. Perhaps one out 10 really like apples. They might describe the apple more vividly or in more detail. Or eye color. You could describe eye color but if its the eyes from someone or something you love, you will describe it different than 'their green'.

Light and darkness?? That's why there's 'light blue' or 'dark blue' err royal blue.

This could all just relate to the tennis ball question o.0. Sorry randomness.

[Feel_Good_inc.]

turns out I was right:

Quote:

Here's a challenge for you: Try to imagine a new color. One that you've never seen before. Just straight invent one. Can't do it, right? You probably figure it's because you've already seen all the colors that are possible. Well, prepare to have your mind blown -- there are lots of new colors out there, we just don't ordinarily have the ability to see them, so describing them to you would be like trying to describe sight to a blind person. And we say you can't ordinarily see them, because science has figured out a way.

In their incessant quest to break reality in ever more interesting ways, scientists successfully managed to show some people a "bluish yellow" color. We don't mean green. We can't really show you what we mean, because the way our eyes work is that when we see blue, the parts of the eye that detect yellow switch off, and vice versa. So it's not supposed to be possible to see a true mix of blue and yellow. Green is something else, the closest thing your brain can offer when you show it something that gets it all confused.
But scientists discovered that we can sense these and other colors that don't show up in the rainbow by fooling our eyes with certain composite patterns. For instance, when you see an image like this ...



Still not seeing the sailboat.
... and cross your eyes like it's a Magic Eye puzzle, some people can see an entirely new color that is neither blue, nor yellow, nor green. Then again, some people just see a gradient blob of yellow and blue and assume they're the victims of some prank.

[mat]

I guess its a cross between green and brown, idk. Funky color you could find in the toilet :x

[Cacoethes]

the darker the colour, the more numbers it is. but green is always 2 and white is just under 1 but not quite half.

[abstract449]

my mind is just blown from all these possibilities xD that idea of "new colors" is pretty freaky. And that blue/yellow cross eye thing is just awesome! it looks different if my eyes are in the right position, but then again it might just be the colors overlapping. it's like a layer of yellow paint on top of blue

[makedamnsure]

I've had this thought before. Mostly with the inbetween colours. My boyfriend has a t short that I say is blue (light turquoisey blue) and he says is green. It's a small difference but makes me wonder if we see colours the same.

For example we see light green, or dark green but who decided both are green when they can look very different? We could have split them into different colours completely just the way Our language formed we see them as different shades of the same colour. Not different colours

[Dreaming.]

Surely the whole idea of colour is that it's light waves as part of a spectrum? So, our brains might perceive light differently, but in fact we see the same colour...

So in a sense we're all slightly colourblind, but colourblind to each others' blindness.

Does that make sense? No, me neither.

[pixiedust_11]

This thread deserves an award for it's amazingness.

I learned in one of my lectures the other day about how both time and space are temporal, because they are dependent on our individual perceptions of change and how this is measured. Apparently a study was conducted to test the temporarily of both time and space. To test for time, two clocks were set at exactly the same time, except one was kept on the Earth and the other was flown around as much as the plane possibly could. When it returned, the time was taken once again on both clocks, and the one that had traveled on the plane was slightly slower, suggesting gravity and other laws of physics have an effect on time.

As for space, a study was conducted in an African tribe in Nairobi, whereby they only have a few words for certain colours as opposed to our full array. They were shown a wheel of colours, with several different blocks being yellow, and one all of a sudden being green. They couldn't tell the difference between the yellow and green colour, because they only had one word for it all. But when it came to showing them a set of green blocks, all identical but one which was of a slightly different hue, they could see in an instant that it was a different shade and therefore colour altogether. It's fascinating to think we're all seeing the same things but in different lights. How do we really know that what we're seeing is what we think we're seeing, when our brains could actually be sending us mixed signals? What if a colour is perceived as being red to me, but is perceived as being blue to another? It's perfectly plausible. I wish I had a link to this study, it'd be interesting to read up on!

Here endeth the philosophical ramble.

[Pictsie]

I've often wondered what the world would be like if I could see colours like normal people, what I understand of colour blindness is your eyes are less sensitive to one or more of the 3 colours, and as none of us are the same i guess even people with normal vision are more or less sensitive to each colour. It is interesting, is what my brain shows me as red the same as what yours does, obviously its the same light and you've been told thats red.

I saw green with the colour thing above, surprising as I'm red green deficient so expected to see more blue from it.

Colours are weird

[Accidentally Abstract]

This has been something which I've thought about at different times for YEARS. I remember my brain being entirely fried by it as well!

Good to get some intelligent answers on it at long last!