What would it mean to see a new color?

(newyorker.com)

26 points | by fortran77 7 hours ago ago

8 comments

  • JohnBooty 4 minutes ago ago

    I can see an extra shade of purple. I had essentially the same lens removal cataract surgery as Monet did. Like Monet, I can see slightly into the ultraviolet range, because the retina can react to some UV frequencies that the lens normally blocks! Unlike Monet, I'm not much of a painter.

    It really does defy words, for obvious reasons. The short answer is that it's "like purple... but even more purple"

    The slightly longer version is: imagine moving a color slider from red to purple and then keep going a little more.

  • xnx 5 hours ago ago
    • aaroninsf an hour ago ago

      That link is fantastic.

  • fortran77 18 minutes ago ago

    I have a taste of this when I got IOLs last month (cataract surgery). I now see colors I haven't seen in years. And I suspect that the IOL passes more blue light than my natural lens ever did, even when I was young.

  • mitchbob 5 hours ago ago
  • AIorNot 4 hours ago ago

    Neat, basically a real life version of Mary's Room

    https://youtu.be/mGYmiQkah4o?si=L8JKYQP5JqRjyFEt

  • josefritzishere 5 hours ago ago

    I dislike the color hexadecimal code #00FFCC very much and it's not even the real Olo color.

  • redbell 5 hours ago ago

    A question I, sometimes, ask my friends and relatives when discussing the human brain and its limitations is: Imagine a color that you've never seen?