Do you see what I see?

[Haitch]

A colour is simply a wavelength of light that reacts with a certain group of cells in the eye when it hits them to send a signal to the brain to tell you what you are seeing. From birth we learn that we can see different wavelengths of light and when we learn to communicate we learn to identify what we see with a name for it but nobody has, as far as I am aware, proved that what we all see is consistent. For instance we all (unless colourblind) can identify a wavelength that is determined as red and know that wavelength when we see it but how do we know that all our brains are interpreting it in the same way?

[Dsg]

The simple answer is that we don't. For example when I look at the sky, I see it as my version of blue - which will be the same version of blue (shades discounted) that I see when I look at a Chelsea shirt etc. You however may "see" my version of blue as a different colour - green for example - but you will still call it blue. When we both look at the same thing - a policeman's uniform for example - we will see it as different colours but both call it the same colour !

[TheHitMaker]

Good answer Dsg, but I don't think it goes far enough - you may 'see' blue in the same way that I 'hear' middle C - but the chances are that what you experience is nothing like what I experience - it's just a bunch of electric charges after all. But whatever we experience, we still give it the commonly accepted name, 'cos that's all we can do!

[evolution]

hee hee. I remember asking someone that very same question when I was at school and they thought I was mad. Of course, Dsg is right. We don't know if we're interpreting colours the same way. At this stage of the earths development, with our current knowledge of technology and psychology we simply can't tell. Unless of course, somebody CAN tell.............come forth oh wise one!!

[snaykz]

For some reason I thought of this when I was still a kid. I'm amazed that someone else has thought of it! I came to the conclusion that it's impossible to tell, although I thought that perhaps this goes some way to explaining why two people can look at the same object and argue about its colour (e.g. black and dark blue), if their perceptions are slightly different. I also thought (without any scientific basis whatsoever) that maybe people with blue eyes all perceived colours the same as each other, people with green eyes the same as each other etc. Weird.

[mikewith]

I imagine we see pretty much the same thing. After all, there's rarely a dispute over how beautiful a sunset is, for example. But if the wonderful reds and oranges I think I'm seeing were dull beige or grey to you, surely you'd say I was bananas (and vice versa).
On the other hand - my wife thinks the paint on our staircase looks good and I *know* it's awful...! So I've just argued myself into a corner.

[Haitch]

It's as I thought we don't know but it's an interesting debate. I've been trying it with people at work and nobody has managed to find a convincing arguement demonstrating that we all see the same. Someone tried to say that red must be red because it's a warm colour but it's only because wee associate it with heat because there is a strong element of that colour in natural flames and things like hot taps are marked with that colour. Please keep thinking It'd be great if we could solve this and maybe make a scientific breakthrough.

[Welshwizard]

If I see RED as GREEN but call it RED and to someone else RED is RED then this means that more colors exist than we know of. The reason I think this is If I see RED as GREEN then GREEN must be something else, say BLUE, and Blue must be something else like yellow, and so on and so on, you'll end up with one color left over that dosen't have a name because it's been taken-up by one ov the others.

[justasking41]

HI All: Strange .... but after wondering about this for decades, this is the 1st time I have ever realized that others had considered the same thing. One other thought - how would we rationalize how the various colors of an artists Color Wheel always seem to be related to the primary colors - thus mixing and creating the various Hues that are so attractive? Also, is it not true that the science types can measure to actual wave lengths of light and that they remain the same at all time? Still just wondering. ;-)

[delapeyre64]

Simple to answer. what colour to you from top to bottom are traffic lights.

If you get Red Amber Green you are seing what 99.9 % of all humans see, Doesnt matter how your brain interprets it, you were taught that that interpretation was red so it is.

[Without fuss]

My wife Helen and I were discussing, over a couple of drinks, how good the �fireside red� in our newly painted dining room looked.  She said, how could we know that we are both seeing the same colour?  I gave what I thought was a good answer but she would have none of it.  What do you think of my spur of the moment idea?  I said that a bird (or many other animals) must know that a red insect is dangerous.  They must know that innately and not be taught it unless every parent teaches every chick that each red insect, caterpillar or berry is dangerous and if that is the case why do some non poisonous animals imitate the colours of dangerous ones for protection.  So assuming they know it innately they must perceive two separate things, firstly that red is dangerous and that what they are looking at is red.  If their perception of red does not exactly match the danger colour in their minds, they will eat the red insect (and die).  For example, if the dangerous colour they inherited were green, they would eat red insects or berries (and die).  Conversely, if they thought the dangerous colour was red but saw green then they would eat the insect (and die).  It would be an odd coincidence (but very lucky) if they thought the dangerous colour was green and perceived red to be green!  Therefore, natural selection must have sorted out all of our ancestors who thought it was okay to eat red insects or berries.  QED I thought.  But Helen would not have it because strawberries are delicious.