> Our brains create color from mixtures of colorless electromagnetic radiation. And in the case of color, I think it’s really a powerful example. Because in a s

> Our brains create color from mixtures of colorless electromagnetic radiation. And in the case of color, I think it’s really a powerful example. Because in a sense, what we experience is less than what’s there. Because we only detect a tiny slice of the energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, a very thin slice of reality — three wavelengths, more or less, for most of us. But out of those three wavelengths, we generate an almost infinite palette of rich colors. So what we experience in color is both less than and more than what’s really there. This is not entirely accurate, as the spectral sensitivity of human cone cells is not a dirac delta function or a small rect, but rather spreads across a relatively large part of the (visual) spectrum, even overlapping. If it weren't the case, monochromatic radiation that fell outside those three peak wavelengths could not be perceived (e.g. low pressure sodium lamps)