I reckon
that everybody sees colours differently. Mabye what I think is green is actually what you see as pink. You wouldn't ever know because you would have learned to associate words with colours that you recognise.
Yes thats right, the spectrum of visible light is conspiring against us all.
(synbag, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:44, 11 replies)

Whut?
Well done, by the way. You've just won the "I've Heard of Wittgenstein, Aren't I Clever" medal.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:48, closed)

Medal revoked
for 'specrum' - unless, of course, the OP is 'Rapanese'...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:50, closed)

you may not be far off there...
...apparently everyone may experience colours differently. Not in the extreme way that you jokingly suggest, but there's reason that people may not see a colour in the exact shade that someone else does. But as you say there's no way for us to actually tell...

been reading richard dawkins' "unweaving the rainbow" lately, y'see..
(widdy, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:50, closed)

Actually ...
... the electromagnetic spectrum and the mathematics of different wavelengths of light say differently.
(FleetlordVT, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:50, closed)

Not at all.
The wavelength is obviously the same for everyone. But what the brain does with it, and how it "feels" to see light of a certain wavelength, might change from person to person. What counts is that we all agree that grass is green, the sky is blue, and so on. We diagnose colourblindness only when the language doesn't fit.

It's a fairly trivial point, though.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 11:55, closed)

grass is green?
what nonsense. it's a lovely shade of pink. everybody knows that.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 12:41, closed)

the key point is that
there is nothing 'green' about the neural signal from the photoreceptor to the brain, its an electrical/chemical signal, the conscious sensation of 'green' is a label that the brain provides. There is speculation that the colour label could be used for other things e.g. dogs may smell in colour.
(negative armadillo There never was much hope..just a fool's hope., Fri 28 Aug 2009, 13:06, closed)

take that just one step further
what I feel as 'sound' in my brain, might be what you feel as 'colour' or smell etc. and take it another step and it might be that what I see is completely unrelated to any of your senses.
The problem is how would you know? And since it clearly doesn't matter (because we don't know either way), why worry?
Then again maybe you are just a brain in a bucket, and all your experiences, including what you think are your memories are being fed directly into your mind by someone or something else. Hell, maybe there is no future either, and you just assume there is because you think you have 'memories'.
But how would you know: ergo DOES IT MATTER?
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:20, closed)

I remember
thinking exactly the same thing when I was a kid. My thoughts then went onto the fact that it is why people have different favourite colours - because it's exactly the same colour but we know it by different names because we see it differently.

I stopped thinking this shortly afterwards when my own favourite colour changed about four times in as many weeks... maybe because I wasn't wearing the tin hat...
(richietheg my dad buries dead people. he's an undertaker., Fri 28 Aug 2009, 23:23, closed)

synesthesia
that's all i'm saying.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Sun 30 Aug 2009, 2:08, closed)

Marvellous!
I have always thought this too. Also, flavours. I mean, how can anybody in their right mind actually like peanuts?
( Black Moon Not cracked, I'm all up to be., Mon 31 Aug 2009, 23:58, closed)