Is your green really my green?
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Joined: Dec 2005
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From: Connecticut
We can postulate all we want, but there are certain facts. First off, everyone receives identical wavelengths corresponding to the different colors. So, everyone 'sees' the same. The real question is whether the brain perceives this information the same. The best guess of scientists is yes based on brain scans. When someone looks at a particular color, certain pathways are illuminated, and they are basically identical for all people. Everything points to the theory that my orange is your orange is his orange.. and there is nothing to tell us otherwise.
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For every trite thought... somebody has spent a career analyzing it using science:
"Painstaking experiments have yielded response curves for three different kind of cones in the retina of the human eye. The "green" and "red" cones are mostly packed into the fovea centralis. By population, about 64% of the cones are red-sensitive, about 32% green sensitive, and about 2% are blue sensitive. The "blue" cones have the highest sensitivity and are mostly found outside the fovea. The shapes of the curves are obtained by measurement of the absorption by the cones, but the relative heights for the three types are set equal for lack of detailed data. There are fewer blue cones, but the blue sensitivity is comparable to the others, so there must be some boosting mechanism. In the final visual perception, the three types seem to be comparable, but the detailed process of achieving this is not known. "
"Painstaking experiments have yielded response curves for three different kind of cones in the retina of the human eye. The "green" and "red" cones are mostly packed into the fovea centralis. By population, about 64% of the cones are red-sensitive, about 32% green sensitive, and about 2% are blue sensitive. The "blue" cones have the highest sensitivity and are mostly found outside the fovea. The shapes of the curves are obtained by measurement of the absorption by the cones, but the relative heights for the three types are set equal for lack of detailed data. There are fewer blue cones, but the blue sensitivity is comparable to the others, so there must be some boosting mechanism. In the final visual perception, the three types seem to be comparable, but the detailed process of achieving this is not known. "
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Joined: Apr 2003
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From: Miami
Originally Posted by vtec9,Jul 22 2008, 11:05 AM
We can postulate all we want, but there are certain facts. First off, everyone receives identical wavelengths corresponding to the different colors. So, everyone 'sees' the same. The real question is whether the brain perceives this information the same. The best guess of scientists is yes based on brain scans. When someone looks at a particular color, certain pathways are illuminated, and they are basically identical for all people. Everything points to the theory that my orange is your orange is his orange.. and there is nothing to tell us otherwise.
Whether the engine/brain affects our thought in the same way is unknown.. and may never be known...
We have a good start with the notion that the nueral impulses are the same... and it is a logical step to 'say' that the brain should then percieve it the same way... but I would be careful to call it FACT.
Why do i think something is bright? and you don't? is it occuring in the eye? or is it occuring in the brain?
If you get sand/dust in your eye.. your brain/body responds as if there is light..everything looks glarey (new word)... but its dust.. not light.. but the brain istrained to treat impulses coming from the eye as 'light'...
Just about the only FACT that we really know from this is that.. we'll probably never know... however.. we can establish some reasonably hard assertions that hold true in almost all conditions, this however, does not make it a FACT.
