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Moegreche
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Moegreche
3,826 posts
Duke

Suppose that we, as a species, are and have always been colorblind. Similar to a black and white photograph, the world around us appears to us as shades from black to light gray.

What I'm wondering is: how would this affect the things we build? More importantly, would our idea of what's beautiful change?
Would be paint our structures to have them look different shades of gray? Would we be visually stimulated by such a narrow range of color? For that matter, would we even have paint at all?
Would our need to categorize things we see have us differentiate between these shades of gray, essentially giving each shade its own color name?
What about art. Would we have paintings, sculptures, and the like?

I'm there are are plenty of other differences you guys could come up with. But I think this is a good starting point. Use your imagination and understanding of the topics to give an informed possibility. It'd be helpful if you explained why this possibility is likely.

  • 13 Replies
driejen
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driejen
486 posts
Nomad

Hmm, maybe if we were all color blind aesthetics wouldn't be as important to us. Maybe smell would have a bigger part in paintings, as we could use varying dilutions of the same substance to produce shades of gray and use specific substances purely for the smell. I think we as a species rely much on our eyesight so we develope a sense of aesthetic beauty, but if we were color blind we would have to rely more on our other senses and develop more of a sense of beauty through other senses, perhaps like texture.

AnaLoGMunKy
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AnaLoGMunKy
1,573 posts
Blacksmith

Aesthetics are influenced by shape as well as colour.

I dont think our idea of beautiful would change, after all humans are drawn in by symmetrical features and mathematically drawn shapes.

Certainly light and shade would become even more important than it is now and perhaps, as driejen said, so would smell. I also agree that texture would play a large part, not just in touch but once again with light and shade etc...

Einfach
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Einfach
1,448 posts
Nomad

Similar to a black and white photograph, the world around us appears to us as shades from black to light gray.


If you can have "less" sight, then why can't you have more? What would happen also if humans had a greater degree of vision / other senses? What if we had a different sense altogether?

Looking at it from an evolutionary sense, to have more or less vision would depend on how vision affected the chance of survival. Say humans were like eagles, constantly hunting prey that we had to spot from hundreds of feet away. We would have a greater sense of sight, and most likely we would not need other senses, such as smell, quite as much. Say we lived deep in caves and could not rely on our vision. There would be less selection towards better vision.

how would this affect the things we build? More importantly, would our idea of what's beautiful change?


Our perception of beauty depends entirely on our senses and our interpretation of our senses (how our brain analyzes the external stimuli). No doubt, this would definitely change our ideas of beauty, and, in turn, those aspects of beauty which we apply to architecture.

Perhaps we would not have books, but more of a Braille-type language: one that relied on other senses.

I have a question - is our perception of color affected only, or also our perception of texture, depth perception and ability to focus, etc?

Would be paint our structures to have them look different shades of gray? Would we be visually stimulated by such a narrow range of color? For that matter, would we even have paint at all?


What differentiates sight for most people over other senses for us? It is the most useful sense for us, because the majority of our actions require it in some way. There is a reason, for example, that when the "fight or flight" response is triggered, our eyes dilate.

But the fact that these people do not have a highly developed sense of sight compared to us implies that they do not use it as often as we do (do not confuse this statement with Lamarckian evolution - it's because we use our eyes so often that we have selection towards better eyesight).

What would be a form of painting (a visually stimulating art) with, for example, our sense of smell - one that you can truly call an art? We do not have one that is very prominent in our culture, and I have never heard of any in any culture.

Our perception of art would change drastically - we would gravitate towards arts that stimulated those senses which were most sensitive for us, so we would still use the eyes, but, depending on the degree of colorblindness, we would not enjoy arts that require our eyes, but rather, our other senses.
MasterC2010
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MasterC2010
187 posts
Shepherd

it is an interesting question.

i think that art would have less meaning if it had only one range of colour (white>grey>black). people would focus more on practical things/details rather than how something looks like. appearance would have less of an impact with the loss of colours.

i must agree with the people above, our other senses would improve, and we would rely less on our vision.

Asherlee
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Asherlee
5,001 posts
Shepherd

I feel a lot of things would change if we were in a black, white, and grey world. Aesthetics would certainly change. I would think we would have deeper contrasts in art, architecture, clothing, and everything else under the sun.

In the world of color, we normally (not always) compliment colors together, not contrast them. So, that would be the different to me. Sharp contrasts in everything. I hope that makes sense.

But on a more metaphysical level, I was taught by a professor of Philosophy of Mind that color is learned, kind of. Moe, you might know the thought experiment I'm talking about.

It's a lady that lives in a closest and she doesn't develop color vision. When she is brought out of the closet and presented with a bright red apple, she sees a grey fruit. She is told it's red.

And....I don't remember how the rest of it goes.

*thinks*

Maybe it's a case for p-zombies.

*lost in thought*

Einfach
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Einfach
1,448 posts
Nomad

I also think humanity's need to know what something is will cause each shade of gray to have a different name.


Let me ask you something - we (humans) have a relatively poor sense of smell compared to our sense of taste. Now, are there any words that describe a foul-smelling...fart (specifically related to farting) compared to another fart that smells differently (I had to use this as an example, because I find the smells to be quite...diverse). I feel like we rely so much on our sense of vision that it's difficult to comprehend that our sense of vision is a sense just like smell, just a more important one.
jdoggparty
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jdoggparty
5,860 posts
Nomad

What would seeing in black and white do to our nerves. We wouldn't be able to tell if something had a blue light that warned us we were hot. So if we put our hand on a hot stove thinking it was cold, would it hurt as bad? I think that if we saw in all black and white we would be mentally tougher, because our sight influences us a lot.

If you can have "less" sight, then why can't you have more? What would happen also if humans had a greater degree of vision / other senses? What if we had a different sense altogether?


I have thought about this a ton. It is so mind boggling. Try thinking of another color or sense that is not similar to anything we have right now. It is impossible.

Also, is moegreche still a mod?
Einfach
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Einfach
1,448 posts
Nomad

Also, is moegreche still a mod?

no
So if we put our hand on a hot stove thinking it was cold, would it hurt as bad?

Definitely. But we have other ways to tell danger, too.
jdoggparty
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jdoggparty
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Nomad

Definitely. But we have other ways to tell danger, too.


Hrumph. I think black and white would change the way we eat food, or some other things that have to do with mental toughness.
MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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Farmer

how would this affect the things we build? More importantly, would our idea of what's beautiful change?


Considering we would have had to evolve in a completely different environment this could have an overall effect one how we build. But otherwise I don't really see much of a change there.
I think our idea of beauty would change as different colors wouldn't play a roll.

Would be paint our structures to have them look different shades of gray? Would we be visually stimulated by such a narrow range of color? For that matter, would we even have paint at all?


The buildings could be all sorts of wild colors, but visually we would never know. We still might paint just to get those different shades of grey.

For example the color scheme of these guys clothes and their ships were done by someone who was colorblind.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/MageGrayWolf/tas-kzinti-screen.jpg

Above and this,
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/MageGrayWolf/kzinti1.jpg
Would look exactly the same. We would only be able to tell there was a difference by measuring the light wave frequencies from both pictures.

Would our need to categorize things we see have us differentiate between these shades of gray, essentially giving each shade its own color name?


I think we would, in fact it might be even more important given the function of seeing color. we would need to distinguish the differences between the shades, resulting in them having different names.

What about art. Would we have paintings, sculptures, and the like?


We may still have paintings and sculptures, seeing depth and contrast might be heightened to compensate for the lack of color.
phsycomonkey
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phsycomonkey
789 posts
Nomad

Ok... First of all the DEFINITION of colorblind isn't that you see black and white or shades of grey.
Second of all, if that were the case for all we know we might not even have electricity
Third, color doesn't effect contour, which is the base foundation of structures.

I am colorblind, no that doesn't mean I see grey, it means i cannot or get many colors mixed up or changes, first of all I can't see purple, I also get reds and browns easily mixed up, oranges and yellows often, lime and yellows almost always, greys blues and greens apparently, dark blue and black all the time, and shades of each color look more alike to me, nevertheless Black and white, purple, anything, I would still design buildings the same

AnaLoGMunKy
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AnaLoGMunKy
1,573 posts
Blacksmith

Ok... First of all the DEFINITION of colorblind isn't that you see black and white or shades of grey


Very true. I think the OP meant that if we saw in B&W and did not really need to be to technical.
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