I’d imagine that an artificial cornea might adjust the IR or UV to become visible to your existing cones, but that those cones would perceive it as some color that they already know how to interpret. For this to work, adjusting the cornea won’t help, you’d have to adjust the cones to capture the other wavelengths. And even then, it won’t work because the brain would interpret it as an already-familiar color. Gotta change the brain, maybe…
How this for an answer:
Fluorescence.
You could argue that it’s not really a new color, but a new property of colors, like brightness or saturation. But it’s certainly something that is rare enough in nature that maybe we can get away with calling it new. What do y’all think?
In Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, the hero John Carter encounters a diadem shining in nine colors, our seven plus two new ones. Unfortunately, neither Carter nor the author give much description.
A later science fiction novel (I think by Heinlein but I can’t recall for certain) mentions the Burroughs extra colors, and then complains about not being able to figure out what they might look like, any attempt usually coming up with something around brownish-purple.
It’s more than that. Originally, someone got the idea that some insects can see in the UV because they can disinguish between two flowers that humans can’t. And then they looked at the flowers in jsutthe UV spectrum and found they were different.
However, it didn’t just stop there. They tested the pigments in the eyes of bees and found that some of them respond in the UV. Also that they had none that are in the red part of the spectrum.
As far as humans seeing in the UV, the blue pigments in our eyes are somewhat sensitive in the near UV, but the lens of the eye is opaque there. People who’ve had their lenses replaced with plastic substitutes can see a bit in the UV.
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So, do those on LSD see colors that no non-LSD-user could ever see? I mean new colors, not just old ones in new ways, or associated with another sense.
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Yeah, I definitely agree that the brain itself would have to have some kind of change to alter color perception to see new colors.
Kind of. Your “blue” cones have a small response in the near-ultraviolet spectrum, but your cornea blocks the UV rays, which is good, because they’re harmful to your lens and retina. Normal corneal transplants, from folks who have posthumously donated their eyes, replace someone’s damaged corneas with tissue that blocks UV rays. However, I recall that at some point in the past they were using a material that didn’t block UV as much as our corneas do, and so some folks were seeing into the near-UV. No doubt making them go even more blind.
Personally, I think cephalopods have the coolest vision. They can see polarized light!
Gee, if’d only been able to see how much the taste of that text smelled! I meant “see sounds, smell colors”. Recursion, here’s an interesting thread about somebody who’s color blind, who’s loss (he claims) can be partly restored by LSD: this e-mail
Gee, if’d only been able to see how much the taste of that text smelled! I meant “see sounds, smell colors”.