I have a reputation for having strange thoughts. I've always been interested in the way people see things, with their eyes or with their minds. Years ago, when I was enlightened as to the true meaning of colorblindness, I had a thought.
I see an apple. It is red, the same color as barns, bricks, and blood.
Your eyes perceive the color that I call blue, but you call it red.
And what you see as what I call red, you call blue, and I see as blue.
In this way we agree that an apple is red, when, in reality,
only I see what I call red.
To this day I still have trouble wording this thought. It makes sense to me, but my occasional attempts to explain it during a discussion are quickly shut down by confused faces or inattentive ears. Despite these problems, I am still bemused by this hypothetical scenario - no, it is because of these problems.
It's obvious to us that some are unable to perceive physical objects with our physical senses, but the notion that certain people may not be able to come to a full understanding of our ideas or even comprehend the basics of what we say is a totally foreign one.
Allow me to backtrack for a moment, and dismiss a misconception to which many have fallen prey. Colorblindness in humans is not what it sounds like - one would expect a colorblind person to see the world in black and white (a condition know as monochromacy). This is not the case - most colorblind people are perfectly capable of seeing color, and in varying degrees. The most interesting thing about colorblindness is that most affected persons will live life completely unaware that they are colorblind until some situation arises in which they must distinguish two things which they see as the same color.
My grandfather is a rare example of a victim of monochromacy. When he first told me of his condition, I was struck by an idea that has never left my head.
There is absolutely no way to communicate the concept of color to someone who's never seen it.
Can any perception really be shared by someone else? Is there any way to know that what you see is what they see, and that your reaction is theirs, even if the words you use to describe the experiences are the same? One cannot even use words to completely describe their own thoughts.
Mr. O'Brien,
ReplyDeletethe idea that our reality may be different than the reality of others is a fascinating one, and I am very glad you wrote about it. The fact that our realities are unique to us is a hard one to ponder, and I often find that an idea similar to the one that human realities are different helps me to conceptualize said fact.
This similar idea is that we will never know how animals think, or how some animals(such as as bees, who can see light we can't) see. You, Cormac, said that you had trouble expressing the idea that human realities are different. Well, once you see that human and animal realities are different--which is easy to do--it is much easier to grasp the concept that different beings view the universe differently. The next step is to recognize that all humans are animals, and voila you can easily conceptualize how people can experience different realities.
Once this concept has been grasped, it is possible to go further with this issue, as you did with your concluding question, "Can any perception really be shared by someone else?" I would like to briefly answer this question by saying, pace the solipsists, that yes, it is possible to share experiences. This is because that although reality perceptions differ, the perceptions are still close enough that they can be shared; otherwise, society would fall apart.
The whole idea of individual realities is a fascinating one. I very much like the idea that my perceptions are mine alone, although I'm not too keen on the thought that I can't share my experiences with others. Who knows though: in the future, maybe we'll all be able to experience the realities of others?