Does color exist?

[Aerozord]

Let me explain an abstract thought I was having. I used to wonder does everyone see the same color. Does "green" look the same to me as it does to other people. Then I wanted to expand on this, does color exist at all? Is colored light bouncing off everything within space or is color just how our brains process wavelengths of light as they enter our retina. Wavelengths within our range of sight is called visible light but is that just human bias?

Is visible light "visible" or is it just as present as all other forms of electro-magnetic radiation and our brains just comprehend it as color?

[Flarecobra]

I introduce you to Colorimetry, AKA the science of color.

So the simple fact that we can study it, and perform experiments with it, means it exists.

Anyway, from that site, an average human can identify over 16 million different colors, so I imagine most of the population can see something, say a banana, and can say "It's yellow.", and a good number of folks can say it's the same shade of yellow, given even and steady lighting.

Granted, you have colorblind people, but that's more the result of genetics getting involved, and I imagine that's a whole other kettle of fish.

[Magus]

If people are going to insist time exists, we might as well consider our own perception of light bouncing off stuff as a thing that exists. It's measurable and all that.

Now, you need eyes to see it. Well, I need special equipment to see UV light. Does it exist? Yes. I need special equipment like an electron microscope to see a virus. Does it exist? Yes.

So even assuming there were no animals in the entire universe with eyes to see it, one could presume that color exists.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

is color just how our brains process wavelengths of light as they enter our retina.

Yes.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Wavelengths within our range of sight is called visible light but is that just human bias?

We're the ones making up the words, so of course they're biased to the human perspective. Biased doesn't mean "wrong" or "unusable."

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Is visible light "visible" or is it just as present as all other forms of electro-magnetic radiation and our brains just comprehend it as color?

These aren't contradictory statements. Yes visible light is visible, as "visible" refers to things sensed by our eyes, and the thing our eyes are made to sense is a certain band of electromagnetic frequencies which we call "visible light" when we're speaking or typing in English. Also, yes your brain turns those sensations into usable perceptions which we call "color" and "light," but that last sentence was run-on enough as it was so I thought I'd start a new one to cover the last clause of your sentence that I'm essentially just expanding.

I mean, maybe we spend more time thinking about electromagnetic waves with frequencies between 400nm and 700nm, but that would be (imho) because we have specialized sensors for them, whereas other wavelengths are only perceived as heat or pain along with so many other stimuli (or not sensed at all). That doesn't make them any more real or less real than other frequencies.

I'm not going to get into how "It's just in your head" doesn't make something unreal, just difficult to measure.

[MuMu]

Qualia might interest you but that's a lot of words so I'd just read phil_'s post and thank someone smart replied.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Magus

If people are going to insist time exists, we might as well consider our own perception of light bouncing off stuff as a thing that exists. It's measurable and all that.

Yes these wavelengths of light exist, but in the objective reality outside human perception does it manifest as a color.

Let me use a very specific comparison to explain. A hot pepper is not in fact hot, it merely triggers the sensation of heat on the tongue. Likewise having your hands so cold they begin to burn. The sensation of "hot" is artificial, a perception of a physical property

Its more akin to the question, if a tree falls in the forest with no one around it does it make a sound? Obviously it creates vibrations in the air, but is that sound or is sound the interpretation of these vibrations.

[Menarker]

There is something that does boggle my mind at times...

Premise 1: A sun's ray contains pretty much a full spectrum of colors (even if we humans can't detect them all naturally). So it pretty much has a rainbow of colors.
Premise 2: Humans (and certain animals presumably) cannot see color of objects unless light reflects onto the object and onto our retina.
Premise 3: In regards to most objects, the color white is the reflection of all the colors, and black is the absorption of all the colors with the other colors falling within the two extremes.

Mindscrew Conclusion 1: Doesn't that technically mean that regarding the actual physical properties of any object, that they are simultaneously multiple hues of colors and that the "color" we refer to is actually the make-up of all the colors that got reflected to us. So hypothetically, an apple which we think is red is actually NOT actually red in its physical layout, but just what we call it because the reflected combination of hues that is rejected/reflected by the object comes to our eyes and we call it the color Red because that is what we perceive (and because it is easier than saying "This object possesses X degree of red, Y degree of blue and Z degree of green")?
(The above Red/Blue/Green assumes the general computer pixel-color logic of mixing hues)

Separate Question: So if a black object absorbs all colors, why can I distinctively see a black object? Is it just that I can see its absence in contrast to all the other non-black objects? Is the shade of black we see in most objects an imperfect representation of the color black that does not in fact absorb all colors?

I know my thoughts probably sound retarded, but it has been nagging me in my head sometimes and while I assume I know the basics of what is taught to me in school, I don't claim to be an expert on the subject past the very preliminary facts...

[Ryong]

No black is actually completely black unless you're like, looking at dark matter or some bizarre magical nano material that literally doesn't let photons escape.

No, I'm going to make the dumbest question:

Our eyes detect light in a certain range and our ears detect noise in a certain range. Of course, they're orders of magnitude apart, but would it be somehow possible to HEAR light and SEE sound?

[Flarecobra]

Nope, because of photons, which is what makes up light.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Ryong

No black is actually completely black unless you're like, looking at dark matter or some bizarre magical nano material that literally doesn't let photons escape.

To a degree but there is also another aspect of how our brains work. We can tell something is there because we cant see it. The human eye isn't all that powerful, but our brains can process the continual stream of information into very accurate approximations. For example, there are no color receptors for your peripheral vision. All that color is based on memory and context to color it in inside your head.

Originally Posted by Ryong

Our eyes detect light in a certain range and our ears detect noise in a certain range. Of course, they're orders of magnitude apart, but would it be somehow possible to HEAR light and SEE sound?

they sense different things, sight is measurement of a type of radiation while hearing measures compression waves through a medium

[edit] something else. Probably the main reason we see visual light is because physical objects reflect it but air and water merely diffuse it. So swimming or walking we can filter out objects easily.