# Visual Biology vs. the DC Lanterns? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785 "2014-05-06T06:57:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/1 "2014-05-06T06:57:15Z")
So over the last few years DC comics has broadened the Green Lantern universe to include Lantern Corps for every color of the spectrum… sorta. It seems to me that all of these colors are arbitrarily limited to the spectrum of visible light as interpreted by humans… that is, species with three color-sensing cones in their eyes (RGB). We know that, on Earth at least, there are species that have more cones and therefore could see colors that we can’t. Therefore, in a universe positively overflowing with aliens couldn’t there be creatures who perceive colors and emotions we don’t even have words for? And if so, how would you depict such colors in art intended for a human audience? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/2 "2014-05-06T07:37:55Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Therefore, in a universe positively overflowing with aliens couldn’t there be creatures who perceive colors and emotions we don’t even have words for? Yes, in fact, additional colours could exist for other viewers within our own visual spectrum - all you’d need is a greater variety of colour receptor types, each with a narrower band - and you’d have people who are bemused by your assertion that (say) red and orange are kind of similar ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/3 "2014-05-06T08:12:50Z")
There’s a [Green Lantern](http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Rot_Lop_Fan) that is a member of a blind species who calls himself a member of the “F Sharp Bell Corps”; I think that light is just how humans perceive it. > [@Mangetout](#): > > Yes, in fact, additional colours could exist for other viewers within our own visual spectrum - all you’d need is a greater variety of colour receptor types, each with a narrower band - and you’d have people who are bemused by your assertion that (say) red and orange are kind of similar [Such people may actually exist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromat#Possibility_of_human_tetrachromats). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/4 "2014-05-06T17:24:46Z")
Each Lantern’s suit is a completely distinct and recognizably unique color. It’s just us poor humans, with our pitiful excuse for “color” vision, who think they’re wearing uniforms. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/5 "2014-05-06T17:46:51Z")
Mantis Shrimp members of the Corps can tell you each specific color. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/6 "2014-05-06T18:34:59Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > There’s a [Green Lantern](http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Rot_Lop_Fan) that is a member of a blind species who calls himself a member of the “F Sharp Bell Corps”; I think that light is just how humans perceive it. That’s always been my take on it. We see the human perspective and read/hear the name in human languages, so we get the Green Lantern Corps. Other species might call them something else, or have different emotional correspondences; it just all gets translated. For my own amusement, I’ve entertained the notion that the Guardians are blue/green colorblind, and thought the color of the original rings and battery matched their skin color. It was too much trouble to change it later when someone finally pointed out the difference. I wonder how Mogo perceives it? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/7 "2014-05-06T18:38:52Z")
Mogo doesn’t hypothesize. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/8 "2014-05-06T18:44:10Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Mogo doesn’t hypothesize. Mogo only pawn in game of life. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/9 "2014-05-06T18:46:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Mogo only pawn in game of life. Beats being a blockaded bishop. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/10 "2014-05-06T19:11:49Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > And if so, how would you depict such colors in art intended for a human audience? Something like a sort of greenish purple. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/11 "2014-05-06T19:19:55Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Something like a sort of greenish purple. Like frostbite on a black guy. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/12 "2014-05-06T19:42:58Z")
The “640-692 nanometer wavelength Lanterns” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/13 "2014-05-06T19:45:00Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > So over the last few years DC comics has broadened the Green Lantern universe to include Lantern Corps for every color of the spectrum… sorta. What, you mean there’s also a Red Lantern Corps and a Blue Lantern Corps and so on? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/14 "2014-05-06T19:50:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What, you mean there’s also a Red Lantern Corps and a Blue Lantern Corps and so on? [Yep.](http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Lantern-Corps.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/15 "2014-05-06T19:52:08Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What, you mean there’s also a Red Lantern Corps and a Blue Lantern Corps and so on? There’s even an Orange Lantern Corps, for certain values of “Corps”. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/16 "2014-05-06T22:44:46Z")
Well, there’s also the Colour From Beyond Space Lantern Corps, who specialize in existential, eldritch horror. They’re kind of a bitch to print, though—not because of the colour thing, but because their dialogue balloons take up so much space. Some of it non-euclidean. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/17 "2014-05-06T23:28:00Z")
This is one of my pet peeves! In DC Comics’s _Green Lantern,_ “color” is often treated as something innate, practically elemental. But in reality, “color” is a product of the eye seeing the light. Shift the wavelength response of either your green or red cones a bit from average (in either direction!), boom, you have “red-green colorblindness”–at least as regards seeing the same colors as other people. Shift your blue cones into responding to a shorter wavelength, and they…just kind of sit there, not seeing anything, because the lens of your eye is opaque to part of their range. Even other terrestrial creatures–even other tetrapoda!–see different colors than we do. (Birds see a lot more, generally; other mammals see kind of like we do, but it varies.) So there’s certainly no reason to expect quite the same “color” perception by the inhabitants of other planets. And if those planets orbit stars with different peak radiation outputs, then they would have environmental reasons to see in a different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Ergo, Green Lantern occupies an interesting place in science fiction: a cute children’s literature concept which is interesting for science to make nonsensical. > [@Miller](#): > > Each Lantern’s suit is a completely distinct and recognizably unique color. It’s just us poor humans, with our pitiful excuse for “color” vision, who think they’re wearing uniforms. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/18 "2014-05-07T00:01:35Z")
I’m sure the comic book printers and colorists would like to tell you to Shuta ya mouth about colors ya can’t see! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/19 "2014-05-07T01:12:03Z")
Eh, at least green is a color which can correspond to monochromatic light. It’d be a lot more difficult to justify a purple lantern corps, since there’s no single wavelength that can be purple light (no, purple is not the same thing as violet). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785/20 "2014-05-07T03:15:17Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > you’d have people who are bemused by your assertion that (say) red and orange are kind of similar Nonsense. Red and orange are objectively, physically similar. They are adjacent in the spectrum, which means they have similar wavelengths. It is true that beings with more color receptor types than us (and the right wiring) could distinguish between certain colors that look the same to us, but that does not mean that they would not recognize the same similarities. > [@DrFidelius](#): > > Mantis Shrimp members of the Corps can tell you each specific color. In fact, [mantis shrimp can make fewer color distinctions than humans can](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6169/411), despite the fact they have many more color receptor types (twelve to our three). This is because they are wired differently (and, for these purpose, much less effectively). On the other hand, given how they seem to be wired, it may that mantis shrimp would be as Mangetout suggests, unable to recognize color similarities, even though these are both objectively real and obvious to humans. That is, it seems plausible that the shrimp can recognize just 12 distinct colors (one per receptor type) but has no means of relating or comparing them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/visual-biology-vs-the-dc-lanterns/687785.md?page=2)