I went for a walk along snowy Church
Lane today, and at one spot I found several clumps
of what appeared to be dog hair lying on the snow. It looked as though somebody
had brushed a dog and left the litter lying around. Why would anybody brush a
dog in the middle of a snowy lane? What interested me, though, was the fact
that it was the colour of my favourite little spaniel. And, of course, such a
coincidence is prone to leading a fanciful chap into fanciful thought.
--------------------------------------
I’m in one of those ‘I can’t think of anything to write
about moods’ today. I think the subject of the snow is exhausted now, except to
say that I spent some time before lunch clearing several paths through a good
hundred feet of the stuff before lunch, largely in the hope that some special
person or other might wander up the lane and talk to me. Nobody did. My
neighbour wandered up one of the cleared paths and talked to me, but that isn’t
quite the same. My current concern is whether the temperature will drop sharply
tonight and make the hard packed snow on the lanes too treacherous to walk on.
We’ll see.
--------------------------------------
Erm, erm...
No, can’t think of anything else to say. I did think of
making a post explaining, for those who don’t already know, why it can be
argued that colour doesn’t exist. I bored myself constructing the rationale in
my head, so I assume it would bore everybody else, too. Forget that one, then.
Time to make dinner.
2 comments:
I would like to know why color doesn't exist.
I thought somebody would say that!
Short answer:
Colour exists only in a subjective sense. It can be objectively stated that no object is inherently colourful, since the perception of colour is entirely down to how the brain interprets different combinations of wavelengths being reflected from it in order to differentiate between them. It's then further adjusted in accordnace with the psychology of expectation. And even those two factors are dependent on the spectral balance of the light that's hitting the object.
Hence, a 'primary red' object seen in daylight is a different colour from the same object seen under tungsten light, and the same object viewed at night appears black because it literally has no colour if there is insufficient light being reflected from it. And then there's the question of how language affects colour perception, which I don't fully understand.
Of course, this is to some extent a matter of semantics, but it does demonstrate how the human view of reality is sometimes an obvious illusion.
Post a Comment