ForumsWEPRAn Issue of Reality

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Alpha791
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Alpha791
3,896 posts
Peasant

Think about this. What is color? Most of you will say what light looks like right? Well actually, color doesn't exist. Light is just light. All light is is photons moving in different wavelengths. They don't have color. What color really is is your brain interpreting the signals it receives from your eyes. On top that, every person interprets color differently, sometimes only slightly, sometimes drastically. Sight is one of the most basic feelings that life depends on to survive but it is a lie. If sight is a lie, what else is true? If our mind only weaves together ways for us to comprehend what really is there, how DO we know what really is there?

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nichodemus
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nichodemus
14,981 posts
Grand Duke

By dissecting eyeballs and brains we have proof that we are wired the same way; barring some unknown factor, we all see the same way.

SSTG
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SSTG
13,055 posts
Treasurer

Think about this. What is color? Most of you will say what light looks like right? Well actually, color doesn't exist. Light is just light. All light is is photons moving in different wavelengths. They don't have color. What color really is is your brain interpreting the signals it receives from your eyes. On top that, every person interprets color differently, sometimes only slightly, sometimes drastically. Sight is one of the most basic feelings that life depends on to survive but it is a lie. If sight is a lie, what else is true? If our mind only weaves together ways for us to comprehend what really is there, how DO we know what really is there?

Is it a philosophical question or a scientific one?
And why do you have issues with it?
An electron jumping from an orbit to another creates a photon and I think it's cool.
It's more worrisome when someone's brain perceive monsters instead of people because you get a dangerous situation.
pangtongshu
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pangtongshu
9,815 posts
Jester

barring some unknown factor, we all see the same way.


In terms of colour...not all of us see the same. Some people (like myself) are colourblind, which is caused by a factor not quite so unknown

And why do you have issues with it?


^This. Would you rather us all be blind...so that we wouldn't have to ask such questions?
Masterforger
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Masterforger
1,824 posts
Peasant

Color is the way humans perceive color. We break it into colors because hey, who doesn't like color? How is this philosophical, if it is supposed to be? Sight is our evolutionary development that allows us to track and hunt.

SSTG
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SSTG
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Treasurer

In terms of colour...not all of us see the same. Some people (like myself) are colourblind, which is caused by a factor not quite so unknown

Man that sucks, I'm sorry you have this problem.
partydevil
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partydevil
5,133 posts
Jester

color doesn't exist. Light is just light. All light is is photons moving in different wavelengths. They don't have color. What color really is is your brain interpreting the signals it receives from your eyes.


is that so. a 2 min google tells me:

Color is the aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by them.

To see color, you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.

The sunâs rays contain all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. This mixture is known as white light. When white light strikes a white crayon or marker barrel, it appears white to us because it absorbs no color and reflects all color equally. A black crayon or marker cap absorbs all colors equally and reflects none, so it looks black to us. While artists consider black a color, scientists do not because black is the absence of all color.


the bold part indirectly (because it's not a complete explanation) say's that is the part where people get colorblind. their brain do not connect the right color to what the eyes see. it's more a brain issue then a eyes or reality issue.
MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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Farmer

Let me guess you were watching that show on tv on how we perceive color? In it they said something very similar.

I think this was the most interesting part of the show.,
BBC Horizon: Do you see what I see? "The Himba tribe"

Skyla
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Skyla
291 posts
Peasant

Think about this. What is color? Most of you will say what light looks like right? Well actually, color doesn't exist. Light is just light. All light is is photons moving in different wavelengths. They don't have color. What color really is is your brain interpreting the signals it receives from your eyes. On top that, every person interprets color differently, sometimes only slightly, sometimes drastically. Sight is one of the most basic feelings that life depends on to survive but it is a lie. If sight is a lie, what else is true? If our mind only weaves together ways for us to comprehend what really is there, how DO we know what really is there?


Your tone rightly suggests wonderment.

Firstly, color is not a lie. The answer lies in our perception of things. The same applies to sound. Take the old philosophical question of whether a tree falling in the forest makes a sound if no one is around to hear it. Since sound is simply a vibration that travels through waves and is then interpreted by our eardrums, then no it doesn't make a sound - since the vibrations are not interpreted by an eardrum. Sound recorders would note a sound, however, as they work like an artificial eardrum.

We can only perceive a limited spectrum of things. Take for example ultraviolet rays or other phenomena that can only be noticed with complex instruments, our perception is ignorant to these if we didn't have our instruments. Our sense organs are selective, they are only receptive to a small range of things, like tactile sensations, light and sound. There might also be things outside the range of our instruments. So keep in mind that our perspectives also have a large background that we do not pay attention to. In our present state of scientific knowledge, our understanding of the background can be argued to be inadequate.

Philosophically speaking,
Masterforger
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Masterforger
1,824 posts
Peasant

Instead of questioning the evolution of the optical nerves, the OP should study Epicurus' trilemma.

Alpha791
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Alpha791
3,896 posts
Peasant

Let me guess you were watching that show on tv on how we perceive color? In it they said something very similar.

I think this was the most interesting part of the show.,
BBC Horizon: Do you see what I see? "The Himba tribe"


Yes I've watched that but that's not what I'm talking about. Color isn't part of the universe. Color doesn't exist, it's just our mind perceiving the wavelengths of light differently. If google tells you that the different colors bounce off of things or are reflected differently, they are being lazy because colors don't exist outside of our minds. I'm talking about EVERYTHING not just color. I'm sorry I only had time for a short OP. But what can we tell that is true and what isn't true? Psychosis and hallucinations can make people see things that aren't there or hear things that aren't there. There is nothing in atoms that tells what color they are, the only way we can tell is with our own brains. Isn't that a very good sign that it isn't really there?
HahiHa
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HahiHa
8,254 posts
Regent

Perception can be very different for everyone but it is always based on very real reasons, like neuroligical phenomena. Only because we perceive things differently doesn't mean they're not real; it's just an initial input (objective reality) that gets received and interpreted in different ways by different individuals due to different receptors (subjective reality). It is stupid to say that things don't exist as for example colours do exist; a colour is light of a certain wavelength, and it may change dependent on certain factors but it is a very real, physical thing. We just gave it names, descriptions.

Dawkins once said in a book that through our senses we are perceiving reality as a constant simulation; I think this is true, though I would like to specify again that just because something is a simulation, a projection of an initial signal, doesn't mean it doesn't exist; on the contrary, there must be something running the simulation, in this case it's signal and receptor chains.

Masterforger
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Masterforger
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Peasant

Color is how we perceive light. We perceive it as such because our mind does not want to look at light and see constant white, white, and more white. The mind must make sense of the world.

MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
9,470 posts
Farmer

Color is how we perceive light. We perceive it as such because our mind does not want to look at light and see constant white, white, and more white. The mind must make sense of the world.


I wouldn't call it a matter of want so much as an evolutionary advantage. Those who's brains could interpret the visual electromagnetic spectrum in these ways stood a better chance of doing things like finding food or spotting predators.
pangtongshu
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pangtongshu
9,815 posts
Jester

Man that sucks, I'm sorry you have this problem.


Eh it's really not that bad. You just kind of learn to live with it haha

But what can we tell that is true and what isn't true?


There is a story I heard (from my psychology teacher) where a student was in a Philosophy class and they were taking their last test of the year. The teacher placed a chair on his desk and told the students that for their test they had to prove that the chair was actually there/existed. The student wrote 1 sentence on his paper, turned it in, and got an A. All he put on the paper was "What chair?" (your questioning reminded me of this story)

There is nothing in atoms that tells what color they are


The colour of something isn't determined by it's atoms (directly), but by its reflection of light
Alpha791
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Alpha791
3,896 posts
Peasant

The colour of something isn't determined by it's atoms (directly), but by its reflection of light


What causes this reflection of light? The atoms.

There is a story I heard (from my psychology teacher) where a student was in a Philosophy class and they were taking their last test of the year. The teacher placed a chair on his desk and told the students that for their test they had to prove that the chair was actually there/existed. The student wrote 1 sentence on his paper, turned it in, and got an A. All he put on the paper was "What chair?" (your questioning reminded me of this story)


That guy must have been insanely smart to come up with that haha

Dawkins once said in a book that through our senses we are perceiving reality as a constant simulation; I think this is true, though I would like to specify again that just because something is a simulation, a projection of an initial signal, doesn't mean it doesn't exist; on the contrary, there must be something running the simulation, in this case it's signal and receptor chains.


If what we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel is a simulation, how can we tell what exactly the original stimuli is? Yes we can tell something is there but how do we tell WHAT is there?
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