Can we create new colors in our mind?

[MisterCasual]

I have always wondered if it would be possible to create some sort of "fictional colors' In our mind, given the fact before having seen colors like magenta, nobody knew it existed. So what I am wondering is do you guys think there are more "colors" that we just haven't discovered? Maybe somewhere in space?

Thoughts?

[collige]

No, because colors are just specific wavelengths of light.

[MisterCasual]

No, because colors are just specific wavelengths of light.

But what if there are certain wavelengths of light that our eyes can't perceive but they somehow exist?

[MisterCasual]

No, because colors are just specific wavelengths of light.

But what if there are certain wavelengths of light that our eyes can't perceive but they somehow exist?

[MisterCasual]

No, because colors are just specific wavelengths of light.

But what if there are certain wave lengths of light that we cant perceive but they exist?

[MisterCasual]

Sorry i thought my internet wasn't working so i clicked submit 3 times...

[wilson]

Ever heard of micro/infra-red/gamma waves?

[collige]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision

[MisterCasual]

Ever heard of micro/infra-red/gamma waves?

yes i have in fact... the only one i'm not too familiar with is gamma waves.

[sigbowls]

do ghosts see color?

[idontreallygiveashit]

given the fact before having seen colors like magenta, nobody knew it existed

explain, did magenta never happen naturally or anything? Or even in dyes and paints? When was magenta "discovered"?

[dubfordessert]

reality is the substance of our imagination i'm afraid

[OttoMatik]

given the fact before having seen colors like magenta, nobody knew it existed.

I'm pretty sure it "existed", just that no one had named it.

Kinda reminds me of when my teacher was discussing how negative numbers are supposedly a relatively new thing because in nature, an object is either "there" or not.
(I don't know if my teacher was just saying shit though, so correct me if I'm wrong)

[wubstep]

Whenever I try think of a new colour it always ends up a kinda shiney purple.

[LACE]

you've posed an interesting question and strange enough i was having a convo with someone who was colorblind about color spectrum etc. you know it's just the differences in perception that i love to discuss. but anyways to explain, trichromats (people who have 'normal color vision') naturally see a wider range of colors then those that are color blind obviously, but there's also a very rare anomaly in perception of color, the tetrachromats. they don't have those three fundamental colors in their retinae, they actually have four if you can believe it. so, they see all the colors we can see, plus other colors we're unable to see..not because they see any wavelength of light we don't see, but because they can perceive the finer differences in the actual wavelength composition of the light then us. therefore, they see more color. but to bring it down to earth, we don't have a way to communicate the differences to each other so it ends up a wash heh.

[JTMMusicuk]

I swear when i took LSD once i saw a new colour, cant remember what it looked like and when i try to imagine it hurts ...true story

[Terpit]

I read an article about this in BBC, I'll try and find it in work tomorrow. Theres a machine that lets you see other colours or something, head pickling.

Also, apparently the Japanese word for yellow is the same word as green. Not necessarily related.

[Doozle]

There was something on tv about light, micro worlds it may have been and a man had an eye operation and came out being able to see uv light

[Kochari]

...The eye's sensitivity to colour is impaired by the fixed idea that there are just five true colours. There is an infinite continuity in shading, and breaking it down into divisions with names distracts the attention from its subtlety. This is why 'the sage makes provision for the stomach and not for the eye', which is to say that he judges by the concrete content of the experience, and not by its conformity with purely theoretical standards.

Pow!

[dubfordessert]

...The eye's sensitivity to colour is impaired by the fixed idea that there are just five true colours. There is an infinite continuity in shading, and breaking it down into divisions with names distracts the attention from its subtlety. This is why 'the sage makes provision for the stomach and not for the eye', which is to say that he judges by the concrete content of the experience, and not by its conformity with purely theoretical standards.

Pow!

need to get me some zen business going