no...none of that is what I meant......
first off, there are two different aspects to color theory: the theory of light and the theory of pigment.
The color theory you are talking about (where red and green are complimentary) is pigment color theory. Pigment color theory is the same whether you are Human, martian, blind, or dead. Red pigment will always interact with yellow pigment to create orange pigment. Blue pigment will always mix with red pigment to create purple/violet pigment. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.
Now, for the sake of simplicity, we're going to exclude colorblind people (i still love you all). What you see as a blue object IS, IN FACT, a blue object, because the pigment in it is blue. This means that I also see it as blue, my boyfriend sees it as blue, Glenn sees it as blue, and dead people see it as blue. It's blue.
Physiologically speaking, the the cones in our eyes work together to turn the light bouncing off of these objects into electrical signals that our brains can read. My cones work the same as yours work the same as Glenn's work the same as a dead person's. The electrical signals are the same, too. Your brain recognizes those signals as the color in question. So far, we're all seeing the same thing, right?
Okay, here's where my point comes in. Role play again.
You're in a movie theatre. on the screen is what our good friend, Joe Smith, is seeing. The fun part is, you can talk to him while you're in here. You look at the and are confused, because all of the colors have been replaced with their respective compliments. There's a banana. On the screen, it is what you call "purple". Behind it is a window, and out the window, you see what appears (to you) to be an orange sky with a bright purple sun and black clouds floating by....
Now you ask him "Joe.....what color is that banana?" and he'll respond "it's yellow..."
"And what color is the sky outside, Joe?" you ask.
"Are you blind??? The sky is blue, the sun is bright yellow, and the clouds are fluffy and white" he responds.
The things he is seeing are how he has always seen them, because they are still the same colors. To him, your brain would have it all backwards.
the reason this is so difficult to explain is that we have a problem attaching names to things. we also have trouble imagining being in someone else's brain, because it's out of our comprehension as humans, because it's not possible. We are so used to seeing colors the way that we see them, that we can't even begin to grasp the possibility that even though they see the same colors we do, they may not see it the same way...........
can we just let it go......it's not this important...hahaha....if you honestly don't understand this time around, i'll just admit defeat and move on...if anyone is truly with me, please let me know!!! hahaha
I think this would make it more understandable:
(This is an extreme version of what Schwulboy tries to explain
If a parent teaches it's child from birth that our RED is called BLUE, then he will say he sees BLUE while actually he sees the colour RED.
Now back to Schwulboy's example:
Eg: If you see the colour red while looking at a banana. And I see the colour blue while looking at a banana.
We both were taught that bananas are yellow. So we do both call the colour yellow, although you see a different colour than I do.
That's what Schwulboy tried to explain (I think).
No I understood what he meant. But if someone sees different hues to me at the same wavelength how does this allow people to agree on complimentary colours, like red and green if they see my yellow and blue (which aren't complimentary).
I think the chance of our visual systems being wired so differently is unlikely to be honest if we are all so very similar physically across the species.
That's why he said it made sense in theory, but not in reality.
Everyone sees the same, but it was just an hypothesis.
And we are taught since when we're little which colours are complementary.
If I see blue and I've been taught it's called green (eg: gras) and I see yellow and I've been taught that that's called red (eg: tomatoe). Then I do see yellow and blue, but I've been taught that they're called green and red. And I've also been taught that green and red are complementary. I might not think so myself, but I've been taught that they are.
So therefore, I accept that the colours which I see as blue and yellow are complementary.
