Let’s say a pharmaceutical company has a long term drug trial. There’s an implant the size of a grain of rice that’s inserted under the skin - someplace innocuous - say an armpit. The implant takes effect overnight, and results in Andy Griffith Show vision (early seasons). Who knows why this is needed or desired, but you have every possible assurance that it is safe and reversible for sake of this hypothetical.
The implant must be left in for one year. At that point, you can have the implant removed - in which case your color vision will return overnight - OR you can sign on for another year of black and white vision and the implant is simply replaced. They cannot allow you to return to your color vision for any period of time if you want to opt for another year of black and white.
Would you sign on for this? How much money would you need per year if they asked you to “name your price”? How many years would you go for. Perhaps if you opt for one year at the price of 65 million they might tell you to pound sand, but if you’d sign on for this, what would your price really be?
My minimum would be my annual income, because color recognition is absolutely required for my job. I’d want a value well over this, though, 'cause I’m willing to bet I’d miss seeing colors. On the other hand, this would probably really improve my charcoal sketching skills, so I might be able to make a living showing art.
One million per year, maybe? Just 'cause I’m greedy that way.
There are ways. Do you think we ask animals what they’re seeing when testing their vision? Just a simple bias in your responses may show that you are faking it. If they really want to get fancy, they could check the responses of individual cones.
I will assume that this only removes color, and doesn’t affect brightness perception much. I also need it for my job, but won’t settle for my income as it is minuscule. I’ll go with a million, post-tax. It would make me useful at work and with whatever nefarious plans these people have in store. It wouldn’t make me much money beyond that, however.
As long as I can drive, read and watch TV I don’t really need my eyes for anything else so black and white would work for me although I just got a blueray player so that would be kind of wasted. I guess at that point I would ask for an amount to significantly improve my life say 100K but if they balked I’d take less.
Hm, I am going to be greedy and ask for $25 mil after taxes. I will do it for that amount, for up to 5 years. I would also require medical coverage in case of any permanent result
I would seriously miss MMORPGs, but if nothing else I can log in and chat with my friends and I could do ice and rock mining. It would screw my ability to prospect new planets for planetary interaction which is actually my main job in my corp. I could have mrAru handle the prospecting part for me.
Rational behind the 25 mil - just on the odd chance that something goes awry during the test that permanently screws with my vision, or some aspect of my health I want to be compensated for screwing me up permanently.
I’d probably do it for $50K. That would go a long way to fixing up some stuff around the house that really needs fixing up. Although colour is certainly a nice-to-have I can’t imagine how it would affect anything in my life, unless they decided to start randomizing the order of traffic lights.
I’m an artist, and work with color every day . . . so it would probably take about half-a-million bucks to get me to do this for one year. I’m already 65, so a year represents a greater part of my remaining life than if I were younger. And it would be real interesting to continue doing my paintings, relying on memory for color usage.
I have recently had surgery for cataracts, so I kind of know what it’d be like.
Ditto I do underwater photography, and view remaining years diving as valuable - as an experiment for a month maybe, but a year, only for a lot of moolah.
There would be many other people willing to do it for a lot less I suspect.
You might be interested in this story (pdf). It’s by Oliver Sacks and talks about a painter who acquired complete colorblindness (achromatopsia) and how it affected his work.
500k, I think, would be worth it. I’d spend the year improving my b&w photography since I wouldn’t be doing any of my color-related hobbies, and could give lavish gifts to whomever it is I sucker into helping me color coordinate my clothes for the year…after being assured the colors, I can picture myself sewing tags into new clothes to tell me what colors they are so I don’t end up dressed like a children’s clown.
If they’d not balk I’d do it for 100k every year for as long as they’d let me. I love to see color but with that kind of money I could really improve my life and my children’s lives.
Animals are assumed not to specifically be trying to subvert the tests. A test for a human would have to be much more complicated.
As for the OP: I think I’d do it just for the amount of money needed to buy out my mortgage and get the place fixed up. After that, getting that amount yearly would be sufficient.
Though I would take it if they’d give more. If I can’t use it, I can always give it to charity. So I would probably start the negotiation quite higher.
This is all, of course, assuming I know what the heck they are testing for, and trust the equipment. In the real world, I would be very, very skeptical of something like this.
True. The classic Ishihara test has, plates that different types of colorblind cannot see. It also has Tests that color blind people can see but trichromats cannot (or different numbers are seen depending on type of vision). There are also plates that everyone can see; even people who cannot see color at all. Failure to see a number here could suggest a numbers of things, but most importantly malingering, if say someone is trying to avoid military duty or claim that their color vision was damaged and they want to sue.
I would run very far and very fast because I cannot see how that kind of clinical trial would meet ethics requirements. I would not want anything to do with those people.
