Colors

[mountain]

im sure many of u have heard this before but have you ever considered the fact that theres no way to know if what i see is blue is what you see as blue? we both say the sky is blue, because we were always taught that the color we see when we look at the sky is blue. however maybe what you see when you look at the sky is really what i would think of as brown. u would call brown blue because that is what you always thought of as blue. it could even be a completely different color that ive never even witnessed before. u could use describing color to a person blind from birth as an analogy... u cannot do it because you only describe it through comparisons... "blue is like... what the sky looks like." U only describe it through its dualities. therefore it is impossible to describe your conception of a color to another human being, just as it is impossible to describe color to a blind person.

[Gawain]

Yep. I've thought about this too. Pointless thoughts like these that keep me awake at night. I often think that people see different hues too. A lot of people would say that something is blue, while you think its purple and vice verca. I wish we could describe color.... Saying that blue is "cool" and red is "warm" doesn't work. Reminds me that you can't possibly prove to me that you exist. I'd laugh at you and call you a figment of my imagination, but I can't prove that I exist either... -_-

[MSG]

yeah this is how colorblind people see... people very rarely see in monochrome here's some tests and info and whatnot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorblind

[Merlock]

Uuh, that's exactly it, it's a pointless thought. Different concepts have different names. Speech is a horribly unoptimized way of communication but it's the one we use.

[Kaniaz]

Yeah, I've thought about this. Who hasn't? Because there's no way to really explain colours other than show people that colour (which is then subject to their own perception of colour), I'm pretty sure you are totally stuffed. Colorblind tests work if you're "missing" a colour (i.e. two colours are the same), but I guess until we create eye transplants or something you'll never know if that blue is the same as another person's blue. You could see brown instead of blue and blue instead of brown. And just to waste some time, check out how do things look to colourblind people?.

[MSG]

hrm that might have something to do with color preference too and yeah kaniaz lol I was looking for that link

[TweaK]

I too have thought about it. Indeed, who hasn't? Same with taste. I mean, you know potatos (Thanks sOOp) taste like potatos and chicken tastes like chicken, but how do you know the way you think chicken tastes is the same someone else tastes chicken?