Why is it so hard to believe that things usually are as they seem?
 

I think we learn the concept of color and light in elementary school dont we? In blackness, without light, there is no color. I know this to be true because I see it every day (or night), but I dont believe it.

If you were to ask me I would tell you the concept and I would understand it. It makes sense. I still wouldnt believe it though.

. . .

I can look at something, see it with my own eyes, and still not believe it. It is an odd dividing sensation - knowing something but not believing it.

I dont understand it, and I dont believe it.

Interesting concept.
I've honestly never considered the fact that I can't see color when it is dark. One can get by with only seeing varying shades of gray. One remembers color as they are during the daylight, and the mind projects color onto a familiar object. Perception is our reality.

Why is this not in Philosophy?

And you don't really specify what it is that you don't believe. Is it that in the absence of light there is no color or see/know something but not accept it as real? Is it that our intuition interfere with the processing of our sight and memory and that lots of things are questionable?

The reason we do this is because the amount of data that our brains and the neurons at the back of our eyes would have to process would be to much to handle. Our eyes make "assumptions"- each set of neurons waiting for a specific pattern. When they all fire at once, there can be a singular single sent unique to that pattern, and not more data. That is why when you recognize one pattern you associate it with another patterm- objects with colors, places with sounds, names with faces, sentences with voices.

Why is it so hard to believe that things usually are as they seem? Even if they weren't, someone would probably notice. If no one does, let's hope it isn't threatening.

We can't see color when it's dark because the photosensitive cones in our retinas that let us see color only work at certain light levels. Rods, another kind of photosensitive cell, let us see in black and white, and they can operate in conditions with less light--thus, we only see in black and white when it's dark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_cell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_cell

That's my pragmatic scientific answer to the first question. As to the second, that will take more musing and mental chewing.

I dream in color.

Youre right, Hain. This should be in Philosophy because of course it isnt just about color is it? I dont know how to move it though so here we are.

If we were standing beside my red binoculars in the pitch black and you asked me what color those binoculars were, I would tell you red even though I could not see that color. Memory and assumption that when the light returns they will be the red ones. I see them as red. If you suggested they were black because there is no color in the dark, I would stupidly argue with you knowing all along that you were correct, but I still see them as red.

If you asked me what color your new socks were and lifted your pant leg to show me, I would tell you I have no friggin idea what color they are because it is dark and I cannot see the color.

Yes, that is the essence of the question. Mostly I think we do see things as they are or as they are presented to us, but just occasionally something quirky comes along and makes me wonder.

i think that how you see something and how i see something can be different based simply on where we stand. All perception is relative, isn't it?

i, for one, am color blind. i have Red/Green color blindness and your red binoculours might appear orange, brown or black to me. i've also found that if i am standing in shadow and looking at something in the light it will appear a shade or too darker than if i were standing in the light.

When i look at something in the dark and know that it is red, i still also know that i am not seeing red. But imagine what it was like when they first started to surmise that the earth was round when the going consensus was that it was flat.

or...that there are may be 7 more dimensions around us that we can't touch or see.

Is that different? Knowing they are there but being unable to physically "see" them?

Here's a scenario i was in last summer. my friends and i were out at the lake and climbing down the side of a low cliff (maybe 200 ft or so). The grade was not straight up and down but near to it.

We started climbing roughly about 9pm. It was still fairly light out at the time. Within 30 minutes that had drastically changed and we were now climbing in the dark. I had a flashlight between my teeth and could see a few feet in front of me so i wasn't in much danger than before. The last i could actually see, the bottom was no more than 30 feet below me. However, because i couldn't see it anymore i found that i had to fight down a growing fear that i would fall.

Is that the same thing?

i'll be back to this later.

Whatever you believe it to be is exactly what it is.

what do you believe belief to be?

I had a most fascinating class when I was in University, all about vision and its processes.

Did you know the sky should actually look violet to us and not blue?

The light from the sun is a mixture of all colours in the spectrum, ranging from shorter to longer wavelengths - that is how colour can be detected, scientifically. Shorter wavelengths are more easily detected, as they are scattered more strongly. The shortest wavelength is violet, so it makes sense that we would see the sky as being that colour.

Due to a number of factors, including the fact that the human eye is less sensitive to shades of violet (containing red), we end up seeing the sky as blue.

Isn't that a curious thing?

Much of what we perceive is relative to the environment within which we experience it. In a tight business negotiation, and aggressive jerk can be a hero, at a backyard barbecue, he (or she) is just an annoying asshole.

Seen from the shade, my roses are bright and vividly colored. With the bright sun shining in your face, those colors tend to wash out.

Though I'm no fan of pop culture, a Seinfeld episode stuck with me. The girl Jerry was dating met him looking stunning, a true natural beauty. He glanced away, and when he looked back, she resembled someone on their deathbed. Same girl, different perception. I know they were just in it for the absurd comedy, but I caught something a little (just a little) deeper.