Well what I mean is that if my green is really your brown but you call it green because that is what you were taught. You are calling what shade I call brown green and what you see as my green I see as your brown but they all have the right names becuase when we were little we were shown a picture and told a name. Does that make sense to anyone but me?
Semantics.
Color names are arbitrary, so it is possible to teach someone that the color most people call “red” is actually “blue”, “green”, or “xbexi”. Color is the result of the impact of certain wavelengths of visible light on the visual receptors on our retinas (“cones” - so called because of their appearance) and the interpretation of that interaction by the visual cortex (a part of the brain). Color-blind individuals can learn the “correct” names for colors even if they don’t perceive them the same way.
I know how we see color, no need to explain that. Then how when we like get dressed and stuff do the colors always you know compliment each other when we are seeing different things. Isn’t someone going to go WHOA! You look really dumb. I know its stupid but most of these questions are.
Do I percieve pain the same way others do? Do I percieve sex the same way others do? Do I taste salt the same way others do?
Everything subjective is probably seen slightly differently by each beholder. There is no way to measure how I precieve green, so we’ll never know the direct answer to your question.
Yeah, I know, but gives you guys something to think about huh?
Comments like that are likely to meet with disapproval. We’d hate to think that you were just trying to waste people’s time ;).
Im not trying to waste people time. I really wanted to know what people thought about it maybe there is some answer out there that I didn’t know.
You know, that could explain all the people out there who wear clashing colors and/or bizarre color combinations. I always thought they were just freaks. (only half-kidding)
No offense, Brittainy, but I think we covered this sophomore year of high school on one of those nights where you stay up until 2 AM, saying, “Hey you guys - what if …”
Everyone’s brain is generally built the same way, and the rods and cones in one eye are much like another. This lends credence to the idea that when you see red, and I see red, we’re generally seeing the same thing.
But it doesn’t prove it - and for the nonce, there’s no way to know for sure.
- Rick
**Brittney[/], don’t let these guys give you too much grief. You have asked a question that my whole office has been tossing around lately.
We have these IMO dark forest green (a green with black as it’s base color) ESP boxes that we use at work. Eight other people see these boxes as black. Plain black boxes.
I swear they are dark forest green, and two other people agree. sigh We are the minority on this one.
But we do see the same colors differently.
My first question here was “do all people have the same sense of smell”. From the responses that I got, not all people do. Color detection could be just as individual.
Carpe Jugulum
Man, I love this message board! So many people on the same wavelength as me. As it happens, I, too, have had this discussion with my co-workers. My office is painted a really weird color, which to me appears to be beige, or a gray-brown “putty” color. One day, after workmen put a new cement-block wall up, I wondered out loud, “So, are they gonna paint that new wall beige like the other walls?” One of my co-workers looked at me strangely and replied, “That isn’t beige, it’s green!” This led to an epic debate on exactly what color the walls were. Interestingly, out of everyone we asked, all the over-40’s said it was green, albeit a very pale sage green. All of the 40-and-under group thought it was beige or off-white or putty. So, when it came time to paint the wall, we checked the label on the paint can. It said sage green. And with this suggestion in my mind, that damn wall actually does look green now!
So, I think you’re right about how people can be taught colors, but age may also have something to do with it. Maybe our rods and cones change as we age. At any rate, there are plenty of in-between colors to test this theory with.
In defense of brittainy, I thought this was an above average question for the board. Frankly, I’ve wondered about it myself.
I’m pretty much with Bricker, that we’re all built with the same detection and processing circuitry, so the odds are pretty high that we do see things the same.
Just a couple random thoughts…
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My friend Bruce is color blind. He sees dolphins as hot pink. I envy him.
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I see colors slightly differently out of each eye. In my right eye, everything is just the tiniest bit brighter and paler.
“The dawn of a new era is felt and not measured.” Walter Lord
As an experiment, try alternating between looking at things with just your left or right eye, under various lighting conditions. I’ve found that the colors are slightly different between looking with just my left and right eye. (Nothing major, just slightly different shades).
I swear that Beruang’s post wasn’t there when I reviewed this thread–sorry for the duplication.
I remember first thinking about this in elementary school. My working theory was that everybody had the same (perceived) favorite color, but because we saw colors differently, that meant various people chose different colors as their favorites.
I’m color blind, and the story of the dolphin color is not how it works.
My color blindness manifests itself primarily in the greens. But when I look at a tree I see “green,” or what I perceive as that color. It is probably only slightly different than what a non-color blind person perceives. It’s only when you get down into the subtler shades that a color-blind person sort of loses it.
For example, my initial Secretary of State test to get my driver’s license, they had me look into this little machine and tell what color the lights were (they’re the same color as traffic lights). I couldn’t differentiate between the yellow and green. For some reason, they were closer together in color than they typically seem to be on an actual traffic signal light. Then again, that could just be my perception because they are where they are “supposed to be” on the signal.
About the only place I really notice my color blindness is at the optometrist’s office. When you go through those books with the circles made up of varying color dots and you pick out the numeral, on many pages the numbers are instantly apparent. But I then go through page after page where I see nothing but dots.
“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi
Well, everyone calls the traffic light between red & green “yellow” and they look at me funny when I call it “orange” which is the color I see it as. Same deal with school busses.
But as far as everyone seeing totally different colors that we are conditioned into calling the same color, it’s not likely. We all perceive whatever wavelengths of light happen to reflect off of whatever object we’re looking at. There might be come minor discrepancies between similar shades and colors, but that all probably just boils down to small differences in the physiology of our eyes.
when i cover my right eye, everything is a bit bluer, when i cover my left, the blue is replaced by a yellow. so, unless i’m the only one like this, i imagine that yes, we see colours differently.
try it.
if wishes were fishes, we could walk on the ocean.