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

Undertoad • Dec 14, 2019 1:14 pm
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 • Dec 14, 2019 1:53 pm
That's why you don't see your nose.
Griff • Dec 14, 2019 1:56 pm
because you never blue it?
Flint • Dec 14, 2019 1:58 pm
Griff;1043062 wrote:
because you never blue it?

Stop right there--yer going to jail, buddy.
Flint • Dec 14, 2019 2:00 pm
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 • Dec 14, 2019 2:00 pm
I heard that, because you blue your whistle.
Griff • Dec 14, 2019 2:01 pm
Now I have to read the article.
Flint • Dec 14, 2019 2:03 pm
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 • Dec 14, 2019 2:04 pm
I think Spencer has been telling himself he's blue green color blind so long that now he actually is.
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 14, 2019 2:04 pm
Griff must have got laid last night, full of puns and vinegar today. Image
glatt • Dec 14, 2019 5:51 pm
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 • Dec 14, 2019 5:59 pm
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 • Dec 14, 2019 6:56 pm
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 • Dec 16, 2019 6:30 pm
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 • Dec 16, 2019 8:55 pm
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.
tw • Dec 16, 2019 10:10 pm
Clodfobble;1043149 wrote:
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,

Some Amazon tribe only had words for zero, one, and many. They could observe two, three, or four. But did not have a word for it.

Could they see blue (as in sky) but not have a word for it? That would be completely different from not seeing blue.
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 16, 2019 11:43 pm
Hard to believe they would see something as common as a blue sky and not have a word for it.
Clodfobble • Dec 17, 2019 8:26 am
tw;1043153 wrote:
Could they see blue (as in sky) but not have a word for it? That would be completely different from not seeing blue.


Yes, this was the conclusion of the book. When initially asked, people with no word for blue said the sky had no color. But when asked to compare it to a red swatch and a blue swatch, they said the sky matched closer to the blue one--it had just never occurred to them before. It's a question of "see" vs. "notice," and the power that not noticing something has on our brain, which is evolved to prune information that we don't deem to be relevant.
Happy Monkey • Dec 17, 2019 11:21 am
Probably similar to the concept of zero. People knew when they had no goats before zero was invented; they just thought that counting only applied when you actually had some.
tw • Dec 17, 2019 6:26 pm
Happy Monkey;1043167 wrote:
Probably similar to the concept of zero.
In some countries, they say "Joe. You numba one." Is that because they don't have a word for zero?
footfootfoot • Dec 20, 2019 1:36 pm
Griff;1043062 wrote:
because you never blue it?

You can blow your nose, and you can blow your boss, but you can't blow your boss's nose.


So I've been told.
Happy Monkey • Dec 25, 2019 3:21 pm
Roses are red, violets are purple.
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 25, 2019 11:50 pm
Foul, Red Card. :redcard:
Using a word to one ever heard or knows how to pronounce makes piss poor poetry.
Undertoad • Dec 28, 2019 1:00 pm
Really interesting article about why tennis balls are bright yellowish green, or bright greenish yellow.

Turns out it was Sir David Attenborough's idea! I did not know that.
Undertoad • Dec 28, 2019 1:00 pm
So, green or yellow? sorry/not sorry to hurt your eyes today :D

Image
sexobon • Dec 28, 2019 1:38 pm
canary yellow
footfootfoot • Dec 28, 2019 2:40 pm
https://www.xrite.com/hue-test


I don't have names for any of these colors but I scored 100%
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 28, 2019 2:52 pm
Don't ever ever tell me where this store is because in order to spend money I'd have to go to it then grunt and point. :haha:
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 28, 2019 3:15 pm
footfootfoot;1043691 wrote:
https://www.xrite.com/hue-test
I don't have names for any of these colors but I scored 100%


Score: 0
About your score: A lower score is better, with ZERO being a perfect score.

Did you know that 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency?


Ha we beat the girls again. grunt grunt grunt Zero being a perfect score, our 12 beats their 255 by a mile.
Clodfobble • Dec 28, 2019 4:06 pm
I have a puzzle app on my phone called "I Love Hue" which is the same idea but with larger grids and increasing levels of difficulty (more shades between the locked-in hues)... it's very soothing to play.
Happy Monkey • Dec 28, 2019 4:50 pm
Undertoad;1043688 wrote:
Really interesting article about why tennis balls are bright yellowish green, or bright greenish yellow.

Turns out it was Sir David Attenborough's idea! I did not know that.



Tennis balls, my liege.
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