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Their color changing behaviours are even crazier because they are color blind! Their eyes can "see" the wavelengths, due to their shape, but not process colors

by tyre 10y ago

Their color changing behaviours are even crazier because they are color blind! Their eyes can "see" the wavelengths, due to their shape, but not process colors the way we do.

degenerate 10y ago
So in this way, perhaps it's like a morse code to them. They can "talk" by shifting colors and detecting changes in the visual wavelengths... similar to how we vibrate our vocal cords at different frequencies to form words, and detect the changes in pitch with our ear drum. Now that I've written it out, it seems silly to put "talk" in quotes. They are definitely talking. We just don't know the language. This makes me want to watch Arrival again :)
pavel_lishin 10y ago
Wait, if they can "see" the wavelengths - which presumably means they can differentiate between them - how is that not color vision? Are you saying that despite the fact that their retinas are sensitive to multiple wavelengths of light, their brains throw this information away?
- DiThi 10y ago
  It's the opposite. The retinas don't have separate receptors for multiple colors, but the iris has a funky "W" shape, which amplifies the (usually undesired) chromatic aberration which is then interpreted by the brain.
- waywardyouth 10y ago
  'can't process colors the way we do' somehow becomes 'can't process color' .. this I think is roughly what Ned Block called The Harder Problem re consciousness
  - therein 10y ago
    Correct but it was David Chalmers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers
fenollp 10y ago
Here's the paper: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17fb/c72811582e03bde433a709c5439b65c86bf2.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17fb/c72811582e03bde433a709... As a color blind person (as are 20% of half the population at least), I wonder if we can create glasses that mimic this shape of lens and just gradually train our brains to recognise the added spectrum. (I know about Enchroma, but their marketing disgusts me)

by tyre 10y ago

Their color changing behaviours are even crazier because they are color blind! Their eyes can "see" the wavelengths, due to their shape, but not process colors the way we do.

degenerate 10y ago

So in this way, perhaps it's like a morse code to them. They can "talk" by shifting colors and detecting changes in the visual wavelengths... similar to how we vibrate our vocal cords at different frequencies to form words, and detect the changes in pitch with our ear drum. Now that I've written it out, it seems silly to put "talk" in quotes. They are definitely talking. We just don't know the language. This makes me want to watch Arrival again :)

pavel_lishin 10y ago

Wait, if they can "see" the wavelengths - which presumably means they can differentiate between them - how is that not color vision? Are you saying that despite the fact that their retinas are sensitive to multiple wavelengths of light, their brains throw this information away?

DiThi 10y ago
It's the opposite. The retinas don't have separate receptors for multiple colors, but the iris has a funky "W" shape, which amplifies the (usually undesired) chromatic aberration which is then interpreted by the brain.
waywardyouth 10y ago
'can't process colors the way we do' somehow becomes 'can't process color' .. this I think is roughly what Ned Block called The Harder Problem re consciousness
- therein 10y ago
  Correct but it was David Chalmers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chalmers

fenollp 10y ago

Here's the paper: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17fb/c72811582e03bde433a709c5439b65c86bf2.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17fb/c72811582e03bde433a709... As a color blind person (as are 20% of half the population at least), I wonder if we can create glasses that mimic this shape of lens and just gradually train our brains to recognise the added spectrum. (I know about Enchroma, but their marketing disgusts me)