how do we know the color blue i see is the same blue you see?

Question

what if our color gradients that out eyes see are different to each person. you see the red ball as red, your red, and i too call it red, but if i was seeing it from your eyes, would i call it green because that would be the color i used to know in my own body? on the same note, a picture in negative exposure, meaning lights are dark and darks are light, how do i know that when i see light, you also see what i would consider light, rather then dark?

Answer 1

There are various types of vision color tests. Some color tests involve a series of multi-colored dots within a circle. These tests can be modified to test for the ability to see a particular color. The observer must be able to correctly ascertain the "obscured" background image within the circle. For example, the normal-color observers will see a 5 in the background; whereas, a color-deficient one might see a 2.

Some color tests are simply a series of vertical color gradients. Still, others may be a series of variously colored circles. The most prevalent one for the military uses multi-colored signal lights.

The Farnsworth Lantern (FALANT) is the definitive color vision test for the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and for aviation personnel in the Army. Results from it are also accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FALANT is a color vision test that simulates colored signal lights from a distance. It is performed at a distance of eight feet, with normal room lighting. In the test, two simulated signal lights appear simultaneously. The observer must name them both. The choices are red, green, and white: R, G, and W. These three colors are shown—two at a time—in various combinations. They yield nine potential responses: R/R, R/G, R/W, G/R, G/G, G/W, W/R, W/G, and W/W. The nine combinations are randomly displayed to the observer, beginning with a red/green combination, either R/G or G/R.

Each combination displays for two seconds. The observer must correctly identify the color of both lights in each presentation. If the observer has a perfect score after the nine presentations then, the subject has passed, and is considered to have acceptable color vision for military service or the FAA. If the observer did not achieve a perfect score then, a slightly revised follow-up test is taken.

An alternative test can predict success on the FALANT: A 6-plate or 14-plate series of Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plates can predict FALANT success, if the proper scoring criteria is used.

Answer 2

You would most likely be seeing some very similar version of 'red' that everyone else sees unless you are colorblind because the object is reflecting the red color and absorbing all the other colors. This is how light/color work and how our eyes transmit this to our brains, however I think it is possible to see a slightly different shade of red than someone else just like how our other senses are not exactly calibrated the same as everyone else. A good example of this is how some people can easily see the difference in dark navy blue and black and others cannot.

Answer 3

No that is not possible. When you learn about the color spectrum and the way colors interact together, they wouldn't make sense if they were all interchangeable.

For example, Red and Yellow make Orange. If you saw "Red" as "Purple" and you saw "Yellow" as "Brown", and you saw "Orange" as "White", then how would your version of the color spectrum work? Purple and Brown make White?

What you're asking is if we see colors arbitrarily (with no rhyme or reason). This could not be.

Another example: Camouflage.
Hunters wear orange hats with their camouflage outfits because it helps them stand out to other humans (because deer are colorblind). Because the greens and browns and yellows of the outfit all blend into the woods, an orange hat will stand out. Well, if your eyes saw that orange hat as being green and the green as yellow and the yellow as black, well then you'd blend right in, and the bright orange hat would do you no good. The hat is bright orange, because all humans see that orange hat against a green background.

Now, we can see different shades of colors, for example a yellow might look brighter to me than it does to somebody else, but the physical property of the hue itself could not be seen differently by somebody else.
Eyes, from person to person, are physically made up the same, just as arms and legs and hearts are. There would be no reason that, arbitrarily, the human eye would work completely differently in each individual human, where every other body part works the same way with every human (deficiencies not included).

Answer 4

Light is a very specific and measurable for of energy. Being that is it physically measurable it can be subject to comparative testing eliminating the subjectivity of appreciation. So visible light covers wavelengths ranging from about 400 to 700 nm.
How we appreciate it has been subject of study and it turns out you have three different cells in the eye that are stimulated at different wavelenghts or colors. It is possible to construct a theoretical 'map' of your particular perception of a certain color and it varies from person to person. In reality that model would entail a very invasive procedure in your eye. So indeed what you call brown may be more like red to me and the same goes for all the senses what for me may be cold for you may be lukewarm. So in conclusion red is red if it falls within the 625–750 nm wavelengths but you may call it blue.

Answer 5

Indeed you are correct, what blue to you may not be blue to someone else as that person may see it internally in a different way. We may be talking of the same color as blue because that is what taught. In the same manner, the color of the blood to many is red as perceived by our eyes but the medical people may disagree with us because they see it as bluish green or so. Therefore it really matters on the person perceiving a thing. Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 6

I get what you are asking, and I don't think it is possible to be sure. Even if what I say is blue is not really being reproduced in my brain the exact same way what you say is blue is in yours, we still agree to call it blue and agree that it IS blue. Beyond that, I don't think it matters.

Maybe such differences explain why one person likes a certain color more than the next person does.

Have you ever done the test where you read the names of colors quickly, down a list... but the word "blue" might be printed in the color red? Many people will say red, even thought the text says "blue".

Good question!

Answer 7

Let's separate the objective, perceptive, and subjective.

Objectively, light is a stream of photons, packets of electromagnetic energy, each at a specific wavelength and corresponding frequency and energy. Spectral analysis can quantify this quite accurately and consistently. That's the light reaching your eye and my eye.

Human optical receptors are sensitive at three separate wavelengths. Other animals can have more or fewer separate detection wavelengths. Color perception is done by the brain by comparing the relative response of the three sets of color receptors. This is why two lasers are enough to generate a full-color hologram. Some animals have color receptors in the infrared or ultraviolet, letting them visually distinguish things humans can't.

All humans with functioning color vision can distinguish colors in the human-visible spectrum with approximately equal ability. Some, by practice, have refined that skill. They have enhanced their visual cortex of the brain but not changed the optical receptors of the eye. Visual artists tend to do this. This part of vision is still objective, and can be tested and compared.

The subjective is what you feel when light from a blue sky reaches your eye. We are extremely limited in our ability to characterize and measure that. We can monitor brain activity and compare areas known to represent pain, pleasure, fear, and so on. That's as close as we can come to what blue means to you.

Answer 8

The simple answer is that we cannot know, at least not scientifically.
I fully sympathize with those earlier answerers who reason that due to the distinct physical similarity between my eyes and brain and yours, that it seems very plausible to assume that we both experience the same color sensation when a certain wavelength photon enters our eyes. But as has been pointed out by other answerers before me, similarly plausible assumptions fail when it comes to matters of 'taste'. They also fail in the behavior of identically-prepared atomic and subatomic systems, as has been revealed by the quantum theory (which I cannot help but suspect actually plays some as-yet undiscovered role here). And, besides, the scientific method demands verifiable experimental confirmations of fact, not merely stating unverifiable (though seemingly plausible) assumptions.

Color sensations are intrinsically subjective experiences. They are not objective facts. No experimental technique or apparatus, no matter how sophisticated, will ever grant me access to your sensations, nor you to mine. They are 'private' and thus subjective. (Here I am making a very strong statement. I personally know of no exception to it, but would welcome any input on this matter, if you feel there is one.)

Finally, I will allow myself a bit of wild speculation:
It seems to me that the only way we could really know that we both see the same 'blue' would be for the two of us to have the same mind ( whatever that means). But whatever that would require to achieve, it would not be "science" as currently formulated, but something else. And furthermore, if such a thing is actually possible, I think the result would not be that "we two both have access to the same subjective experience and so now we can finally compare our separate sensations of blue", but rather "we two are no longer separate, we two have become one " (as seems to happen in certain mystical experiences of God ). That is to say, I actually suspect that there is a qualitative similarity between "subjective experience of blue" and "subjective experience of God". (Both are vividly and undeniably true to the person having the subjective experience, and likewise both are not objective experimentally-verifiable facts examinable through science.) Just like an earlier answerer pointed out that because he has never experienced 'yellow' (in its place he sees 'grey') he cannot possibly imagine what yellow is, likewise someone who has never directly experienced God's presence cannot possibly imagine what that is either (for such a person, the world in a sense is grey too).

Answer 9

I've often wondered the very same thing. I don't really think there's a way to know. If you'd try to do some sort of test people would identify red as red and so on.

Answer 10

not unless youre color blind. most people see red as red and blue as blue. colors are there because of the light spectrum, most people see the same light spectrum. you must be a very philosophical thinker :)