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Blurble (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 4 days ago by FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/memes@sopuli.xyz
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[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 days ago

I know I heard about a group in Africa (IIRC) where they have a lot more words for greens, but they don't have a word for blue, or something like that. When given a test to identify the odd color out, when it's a very slight tint change of green they identify it quickly, but most westerners take a lot longer. When all of them are green, but then there's a blue one, they take a long time, but westerners see it instantly.

It's why IQ tests are fundamentally flawed. Just our launguage can shape our recognition of the world. Imagine how much the rest of our culture, education, and surroundings influence us. None of these make us better or smarter than anyone else, yet they'll all make us better or worse at different things. They're all valuable, and it's part of why diversity, equity, and inclusion are so important. These different points of view can bring so much value to us

[-] baltakatei@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

It’s why IQ tests are fundamentally flawed.

Since you have failed to correctly define the words “highfalutin”, “dogsbody”, “apiary”, “valise”, “collet”, “haruspex”, “threnody”, or even “copse”, we regret to inform you that you are functionally illiterate and likely mentally disabled.

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

highfalutin

Person that farts a lot

dogsbody

Body of dog

apiary

BEES

valise

That stuff that reduces friction

collet

Piece of meat

haruspex

Protagonist no. 2 of Pathologic, and protagonist of Pathologic 2

threnody

Made up word

copse

Corpse without r

😎

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I didn't know Pathologic took place in the world of Harry Potter.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

The same is true for English too.

Brown and orange are different brightness levels of the same colour. Brown is dark orange and orange is light brown. Yet people experience brown and orange as separate colours, because we have separate words for it, while we experience light blue and dark blue as different brightness levels of the same colour, because both are called "blue".

[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 8 points 2 days ago

I had the hood of a car come down on the back of my head when I was taking out an alternator.

I saw all kinds of new colors!

[-] vandsjov@feddit.dk 3 points 2 days ago

You could have done something more productive, like coming up with the Flux capacitor....

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 59 points 4 days ago

Indefinite?

indefinite /ĭn-dĕf′ə-nĭt/ adjective

  1. Not definite, especially.
  2. Unclear; vague.
  3. Lacking precise limits. "an indefinite leave of absence."
[-] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago

I have a vague notion of a new color. Success!

[-] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 6 points 4 days ago

I'm thinking take an artist with exquisite color sense, and dose them (consentually) with mushrooms/ acid; that should do the trick.

[-] Saleh@feddit.org 40 points 4 days ago

Infinity does not require to be all encompassing.

The set of natural numbers is infinite, yet it contains no negative numbers.
The set of whole numbers is infinite, yet it contains no fractional numbers, except arbitrary fractions like four halves.
The set of fractional numbers is infinite, yet it does not contain most real numbers...

[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

So? It says human imagination is indefinite.

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Well, have you tried definiting it, huh?

[-] pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

greg2

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 33 points 4 days ago

Pick any two adjacent known colors. Find the wavelength midpoint between these colors. Determine if this is a known color. Repeat until you've found an unclassified color.

This isn't an imagination problem, its a math problem.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 days ago

Everything is a math problem. It just needs to be written in the proper form.

[-] Gladaed@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Colors aren't sharp combinations of wavelengths though.

[-] bobo1900@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 days ago

They are not talking about the mathematical definition of color, but how the color is represented in the mental image you have in your head. Think about how a blue wavelength becomes a blue "pixel" in your head. It is possible to imagine other colors? If we could see ultraviolet, what color would it be? Is my blue the same as your blue or what my brain interprets as blue is different from what your brain does?

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[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

This doesn't really work because colors are a spectrum. You can split and merge existing colors like using a single word for blue and green (like Japanese) or distinguish between light and dark blue (like Italian) but "light blue" isn't a new color. It's part of the blue spectrum

[-] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 4 days ago

Yeah tell that to Pantone LLC

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

but "light blue" isn't a new color. It's part of the blue spectrum

A spectrum isn't a color, its a range of wavelengths. "Light Blue" is a narrower range of wavelengths with higher brightness value than the "Dark Blue" end.

We define a unique "color" as a specific combination of hue, saturation, and brightness value. "Inventing" a new color is just a question of finding a combination of attributes that hasn't been produced before. Thanks to the midpoint theorum, you can do this right up to the point of Plank's constant.

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 days ago

I meant spectrum as in it's not a fixed value but, fine, I can call it range instead. Doesn't change my argument.

What do you mean "hasn't been produced before"? That comes with a huge burden of proof. People produce color gradients all the time. Pretty many colors in them.

And if you produce a shade of blue that by happenstance is either more or less saturated than anything else, what have you found there? It isn't a new color by any meaningful definition. It won't blow anyone's mind, it's just a shade of blue similar but not identical to other blue shades. It falls into the blue range. The observable light is devided into colors, each inhabiting a range. The exact way is different depending on language and other contexts but by no meaningful definition is a color just a single value.

Before you double down on your definition: the implication is that your definition doesn't make much sense and to demonstrate it from a different angle: how precise are you going to measure these? Let's say a common blue has the saturation of 63%, would 64% quality as a new color? What about 63.2%? Where do you draw the line? And if you have to draw lines anyway, why not choose a meaningful way as in defining "blue" as one color?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

What do you mean “hasn’t been produced before”? That comes with a huge burden of proof.

Sure. But, again, that's not a question of creativity, just an exhaustive exercise of proving uniqueness.

It isn’t a new color by any meaningful definition.

Because color isn't an invented concept, it is a perceived wavelength value/range. Asking for a "new color" is like asking for a "new number".

Under your broader definition of color, we've already found the three or seven or I guess nine if you want to count black/white, existing colors. The only way to "invent" new colors is to expand the spectrum by which humans perceive light.

Understanding how light works and how one might accomplish this takes creativity. But if we're excluding ultraviolet or infrared because they're outside the natural visual spectrum, all we can creatively accomplish is proving we've exhausted the range of available colors.

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[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 7 points 3 days ago

The visual spectrum is finite. So it's an impossible task.

[-] theneverfox@pawb.social 4 points 3 days ago

There's actually impossible colors that can be seen by playing with the visual spectrum of the color sensitive molecules. You can also play with visual processing to further see impossible colors

I'm not saying there's infinite combinations, but there's ones you've never seen and no one has a word for

[-] BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

Brown is not in the color spectrum, doesn't have a wavelength, yet we can imagine it and see it.

Space is a finite number (three) of dimensions, yet we can imagine space with higher number of dimensions.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Brown is on the colour spectrum, it does have a wavelength. Specifically, it has the same wavelength as orange. Because brown is dark orange and orange is light brown.

What's not on the colour spectrum are multi-wavelength mixed colours like e.g. red and blue light combining to something that looks like spectral violet. And while these multi-wavelength colours are physically different than a pure spectral colour, the sensation to a human is identical, because both trigger the cone cells in the eyes in an identical way. Which is why we can have screens that only emit three colours and still trigger the same sensations as millions of different spectral colours.

[-] BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Really ? Cool, I didn't know.

I can't find the wavelength online, can you tell me what wavelength brown is exactly ? By that I mean any specific length that if a light source only emits that wavelength would be brown.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

590-620nm. Identical to orange.

The difference between brown and orange is the brightness level, and since the eyes have an automatic brightness adjustment, brightness levels only appear in context.

Light becomes a darker variant if there's brighter light around and vice versa. Shine brown/orange light into a dark room, and it will appear orange. Shine the same light into a brighter context, and it will be brown.

It's exactly the same thing as e.g. dark blue or light blue. Both share the exact same wavelength, and their brightness becomes apparent in context.

If you've ever been to a cinema and you saw anything brown or orange on screen, you have seen the effect. If you have ever seen a dim conventional light bulb in a bright room, you have seen it too.

Brown has just as much a wave length as orange, because it's the same color.

[-] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Yup technically orange

[-] VoterFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Also magenta. Actually, white and black too.

[-] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 4 days ago

octarine

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

new

But yah, my favourite one as well

[-] officermike@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago

But we did recently invent a new color, or at least a new way to perceive color.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-discover-new-color-thats-impossible-to-see-without-lasering-your/

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 4 days ago

This one’s for me! I saw a new color the second time I broke through on DMT! I can still see it in my imagination. I’ve broken through since and haven’t seen it again.

[-] Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Epic Its like a purple, blue, pink, but more vibrant with sparkles. Similar to what is used for epic level items in games, hence the name.

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago

For this to be a color, it needs to be even at all points, so no sparkles!

[-] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago

No, no, they have a point - if they can imagine something that's perfectly uniform and sparkly, then that'd actually be something novel

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago

Fair enough!

[-] Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

Also a cool thing about imaginination, is you don't have to stick to or define all the parameters to imagine it. You can go like, I'm imagining in this imaginary senario I've figured that part out, and just run with it.

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

True, but when we say we can't imagine something, we don't mean a mental construct that we don't think through, we mean something tangible. In case of color, it means actually visualizing it mentally, not imagining there could be something.

[-] Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 1 points 38 minutes ago

That sounds self imposed.

[-] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 days ago

Trying to imagine objects in higher than 3 spatial dimensions.

Imagining 2 or more temporal dimensions.

Designing a system of governance that is fair to all constituents, physically realizable, and marketable enough to convince future constituents to follow it.

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[-] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago

Trying to think of a new colour after turning off my mental safeguards felt like I was a computer dividing by zero. Honestly, would not recommend.

[-] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Red but a bit greener

[-] ShortFuse@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

We would have also accepted a bluer yellow.

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this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
270 points (93.3% liked)

Memes

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