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threemonkeysI'm literally in the clouds this morning. Outside the house, everything is just a misty white. Add that to the Calamities of Nature cartoon below, a conversation the other day around the results of the XKCD Colour survey, my last job which involved a lot of work defining printer colour output and the lyrics to a certain Echo and the Bunnymen song. What you end up with is a philosophical morning musing on the nature of colours and perception of same.
It is easy to forget that colour is not something intrinsic to objects that is transmitted to us via coloured light. Objects have light absorption and retransmision and light has wavelength. Colours are caused by the structure of our eyes and the processing that our brain does to interpret the signals coming from that structure. It is our brains which give the world colour.
Various writers have referenced the idea of colours that are beyond the range of normal perception. For example H P Lovecraft and Clarke Ashton Smith were fond of strange unfathomable colours. Terry Pratchett invented a new colour for the diskworld. But that can't happen in the normal course of events because our eyes only trigger on certain light types and our brains interpret to a palette that isn't extended. But what if that palette could be extended. We know that the brain's colour processing can be influenced by drugs or just simple saturation tricks. So as the cartoon suggests, can it be influenced to see new colours?
The thing is, it is so very hard to imagine the reality of something like that. It is one thing to grasp the concept but another to see the colour. It seems to me that this is quite similar to the difficulty encountered when trying to grasp the physical nature of higher dimensions.
Enough philosophy, it is time for breakfast - alas, no bacon in the house.
It is easy to forget that colour is not something intrinsic to objects that is transmitted to us via coloured light. Objects have light absorption and retransmision and light has wavelength. Colours are caused by the structure of our eyes and the processing that our brain does to interpret the signals coming from that structure. It is our brains which give the world colour.
Various writers have referenced the idea of colours that are beyond the range of normal perception. For example H P Lovecraft and Clarke Ashton Smith were fond of strange unfathomable colours. Terry Pratchett invented a new colour for the diskworld. But that can't happen in the normal course of events because our eyes only trigger on certain light types and our brains interpret to a palette that isn't extended. But what if that palette could be extended. We know that the brain's colour processing can be influenced by drugs or just simple saturation tricks. So as the cartoon suggests, can it be influenced to see new colours?
The thing is, it is so very hard to imagine the reality of something like that. It is one thing to grasp the concept but another to see the colour. It seems to me that this is quite similar to the difficulty encountered when trying to grasp the physical nature of higher dimensions.
Enough philosophy, it is time for breakfast - alas, no bacon in the house.