Asschafing

Alright so me and my friend were mega-baked a couple of nights ago. She then began lecturing me on colors. What if one person's green was another person's black or maybe even some color that you've never seen before. There really is no way to describe a color, so how do we know that we all see the same stuff?

StonedImmaculate21

^^That's the argument I was going to post, until I thought about your question a little more. What your friend is proposing is:

1. It is possible that our eyes and brains are wired to perceive colors differently.
2. Since the only common identifiers we have for colors are their names, it in possible that we are seeing different colors, but calling them by the same names.
3. E.g., one person sees the color yellow where I see blue (as in the sky), if I were the first person to teach this person the names of colors, he/she would learn the name "blue" for what I see as blue, even though what I see as "blue", the other person sees as what I would call "yellow".
4. Since the switching of colors would (in theory) be consistent across the spectrum, there would be no disagreement on the name of the color of the sky, or anything else that I see as "blue", likewise with all the other colors.

It sounds to me like one of those questions that can't be definitively answered. I would say that, in all likelihood we all see the same colors, but I can't think of any way, on paper or otherwise, to prove it.

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Meursault

There are people that are colour blind. They perceive completely different colours as the same thing, similar to the "sky looks yellow, but it's blue" deal from the above post.



Can you see the number in the circle? I sure hope you can. Otherwise....

But as far as the average human being, I'm sure we all see pretty much the same colours, although I wouldn't be surprised if some of our colour spectrums were slightly off from each other's, but there's no definite way of proving that.

StonedImmaculate21

I don't see a number . . . I see circles in varying hues of tan and brown, but no number. I know I'm not color blind though . . . at least I don't think I am!

My brain keeps playing "connect the dots" and making numbers, but I don't see one that stands out or is really obvious.

Now I feel like the guy in Mallrats trying to see the sailboat (anyone who gets that reference is officially awesome ).

Meursault

I'm sorry man, but according to the test, if you can't see any number, then you have Achromatopsia, aka color blindness. I guess you'll have to break your vow of silence at the next pitstop; you can't be a pilot anymore, sonny (if anyone gets that movie reference, then thumbs up to you).

StonedImmaculate21

Little Miss Sunshine! Excellent movie!

I might be slightly color blind when it comes to certain shades (or it might be my monitor), but I can definitely make out most colors (for instance, the Wild Cherry Pepsi bottle on my desk, I can clearly see the red, the brown on the cherry stem, and the alternating bands of light and dark blue).

Can you tell me what the number is? Maybe I'll see it if I know what to look for. This is going to bug me now . . .

Meursault

It's the same one that was in Little Miss Sunshine, the number 74 in green.

"Example of an Ishihara color test plate. The numeral "74" should be clearly visible to viewers with normal color vision. Viewers with dichromacy or anomalous trichromacy may read it as "21", and viewers with achromatopsia may see nothing."

- Color blindness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

StonedImmaculate21

Maybe I'm some kind of oddball exception, but I can't see a damn thing. Hopefully some other people will chime in on this. I'll get my girlfriend to take a look at it when she wakes up.

Darque Pervert

While there are varying degrees of color blindness, the picture above is a pretty standard test.
There is a circle of reddish dots clustered together. Some of the dots are greenish and form the number 74.
If you don't see the number 74 in there, you're very likely red/green color blind.

Color blindness is hereditary, so I'd check with your parents or other family members to see if it's something that runs in your bloodline. You should also consider getting your eyes checked.

Oh, and if you're color blind, I suggest buying only white or black socks, if only to avoid an embarrasing incident.

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StonedImmaculate21

It's probably something with my monitor. I know there's no color blindness in my Mom's side of the family, not sure about my Dad's. I wear glasses, so I've had tests for color blindness as well as other vision problems before (granted, I've never seen this one). Plus, as I stated earlier, I've never had any trouble distinguishing between colors before.

EDIT: Ok, never mind. My girlfriend looked at it and got it right away. She even traced the numbers out with her finger and I still can't see them. She said I probably just have trouble distinguishing shades, since I couldn't tell if some of the dots were green or tan. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'll be sure to ask my optometrist about it.