Colors

Interesting article in the BBC today about colour perception.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14421303

For the UK members- Horizon is doing a special on colour perception tonight at 9pm.

What if our brain and eyes don't allow us to only see a limited amount of things. There could colours that we've never discovered.

This doesn't only apply to colors. There is just a complete disconnect between communication and what is experienced for certain.

Like, what I think of as a tree could be something completely abstract for you. We could all be living in completely separate fantasies and just share a common language. Maybe what you guys even think of as a human being isn't what I think of.

Maybe you see furry creatures with horns or something, except, of course, you'll have different concepts of what "furry" and "horns" are too.

Colors only exist in our minds. Our eyes have evolved over millions of years to pick up only 3 distinct frequencies of light energy. It's no coincidence it's these three colors; red, green and blue. They are the three most important colors of survival; blood, plants and water. From mixing those three primary colors our minds can interpolate over a million variations. Color distinctions are programmed into an infants mind as neural connections are formed from the senses. It is possible that actual perceptions of color could vary from one mind to the next but would be impossible to know for sure as each mind has learned to accept their own perceptions as normal. As far as experiencing another color, our minds simply aren't wired for it. The new light signal would have to be introduced in the developing mind of an infant for starters, on top of that human DNA wouldn't likely know what to do with the signal.

Originally Posted by ZiggyZuZu

What if our brain and eyes don't allow us to only see a limited amount of things. There could colours that we've never discovered.

As far as humans go there is a limited spectrum of colors humans can perceive due to processing colors similarly through cones and rods in the eye connecting to the visual cortex, although within that spectrum we each perceive colors differently.. There are animals that can perceive higher and lower frequencies of colors than humans such as some reptiles detecting ultra violet light.