You can see blue, because you have a word for it

[Undertoad]

There's Evidence Humans Didn't Actually See Blue Until Modern Times

And read the whole thing; because halfway through it, they find an African tribe that still doesn't have a word for blue, and as a result, can't see it.

And then, they'll demonstrate a color the tribe CAN see, but you CAN'T, because you speak English!

Our senses do not even pick up things that don't have meaning to us. Our eyes pick up a huge amount of information, but the brain just throws away almost all of it, and causes us to only see what we want to see and need to see. The rest is entirely invisible.

And the biggest aspect that gives those things meaning to us, is that we share and describe them.

It's all rather stunning. There's no question that there are things that are *there*, see-able but invisible to all of us, because we just don't have the capacity to describe them, or by chance we never found them interesting enough to try to describe.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's why you don't see your nose.

[Griff]

because you never blue it?

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Griff

because you never blue it?

Stop right there--yer going to jail, buddy.

[Flint]

Purple is interesting, too. We don't have a direct sensory mechanism for experiencing purple, i.e. there is no electromagnetic wave that is detected by a specific component of our eyes that is the "purple" frequency/receptor. Purple is, basically, the "absence of green"

[Griff]

I heard that, because you blue your whistle.

[Griff]

Now I have to read the article.

[Flint]

Haven't read yet, but definitely will soon. I l o v e this stuff.

Life is a broken simulation I'm unable to feel
I'm searching for something that's real
I am always seeking to see what's behind the veil

Trapped in a maze of unseen walls
These blockades must fall

[lumberjim]

I think Spencer has been telling himself he's blue green color blind so long that now he actually is.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Griff must have got laid last night, full of puns and vinegar today.

[glatt]

I'm skeptical. I only know maybe two dozen different color names, but I can easily identify hundreds of different colors. Just go to the paint sample aisle at home depot and look.

[Clodfobble]

There's a fantastic book that somewhat debunks this particular notion (but adds a whole lot of other crazy stuff in the process) called "Through the Language Glass" by linguist Guy Deutscher. It's accessible and fascinating, I highly recommend it.

[henry quirk]

The particular quality most english-speakers call color, is in the light. If a person or a population can't see a *color, it's cuz they have a visual or neurological deficiency, hence no knowledge of that color (and no native name).

This...

This all suggests that, until they had a word from it, it's likely that our ancestors didn't actually see blue.

...is horseshit.

We don't create Reality (and the things in Reality) in signifying; we categorize, distinguish, apply meanings to, Reality (and the things in Reality) in signifying, and we do this for ourselves, not cuz Reality requires it.








*or a shade of a color

[tw]

Mankind changed significantly when his diet improved. For example, by eating meat and cooking food, then the humanoid brain increased significantly. Retinoid is another dietary contributor to vision. As retinoid increased in diets, then cones shifted from detecting mostly red (low frequency light) to also detecting higher frequencies (blues).

Retinal is also more commonly made available as Vitamin A. That theory is more based in science and not in vague speculations.

[Clodfobble]

It's a testable theory, tw--they went to modern-day tribes, who are just as evolved but speak different languages, and performed a lengthy series of visual color tests. In the book I mentioned, they also go into how spatial awareness and counting are affected by language. For example, some cultures describe directions in concentric circles instead of cardinal north and south, and their spatial skills are vastly different--better in some ways, worse in others--than those of the average adult English speaker's.