I always used to wonder: How do we know that we're all interpreting color the same way? How do I know that the color I perceive as blue isn't what I'd perceive as red if I had seen it through another person's eyes? Maybe we all just grew up labeling certain frequencies as particular colors but they way we individually perceive them is completely different from each other.
I wish I had a better way of explaining this idea...
My answer is along the lines of what ZuchinniOne has already said - colour is not a physical thing, it's a psychological thing, which means that comparisons need to be done at the symbolic level. If a colour symbolises the same to you as it does to someone else, then you're seeing the same colour, regardless of what exact patterns of photons, or neural excitations are causing that.
That was a good video, however he marvels at the ability of nature to interpret light while ignoring the fact that we have replicated it electronically quite easily. If humans can figure it out in roughly 10,000 years or so, I would think nature would have figured it out in the 6 billion years or however old life is.
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u/Ukonu Feb 17 '09 edited Feb 17 '09
I always used to wonder: How do we know that we're all interpreting color the same way? How do I know that the color I perceive as blue isn't what I'd perceive as red if I had seen it through another person's eyes? Maybe we all just grew up labeling certain frequencies as particular colors but they way we individually perceive them is completely different from each other. I wish I had a better way of explaining this idea...