From: Michael S. Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Nov 29 2000 - 15:41:35 MST
Color receptors are not really dimensions, they are simply separate
ranges in the visual spectrum, and only overlap a bit. Likewise, deer
have only two color receptors, so they see the world as a matter of
blue, yellow, and shades of grey in between (which is why they don't see
blaze orange)
Brent Allsop wrote:
>
> <Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
>
> Thanks for reporting this fascinating information!! I've
> never heard of this possibility before.
>
> Hal <hal@finney.org> commented:
>
> > It would take some time to get used to your two eyes seeing
> > different colors, but perhaps it would eventually become
> > unconscious. There were famous experiments back in the 60s in which
> > people wore special glasses that turned the visual image upside
> > down! After a few days they got used to it and everything looked
> > normal. Then when they took the glasses off they had to adjust
> > again. If people can adapt to such a radical change as this, then
> > incorporating some extra color information ought to be easy.
>
> There is a huge categorical difference between having
> additional colors in our color awareness and simply inverting an
> otherwise subjectively similar image and it eventually seeming
> normal. The article touched on this a bit by pointing out that simply
> having an extra 4th receptor in the eye isn't enough for us to be
> aware of an additional color. You must also have an additional
> channel in the optic nerve to convey the added information to the part
> of our brain where the awareness is produced (the visual cortex) and
> of course the most important part of all is, one's conscious knowledge
> must be enhanced to be able to produce additional quale to represent
> this 4th color dimension in order to be what I would consider a full
> blown subjective "tetrachromate".
>
> I'd bet that, given what little was in this article, It is
> likely that Mrs M is simply mapping the set of trichromatic color
> qualia produced by most of our visual cortexes in our consciousness a
> little more broadly over the tetrachromic set of information, hence
> still enabling her to distinguish differences in perception better
> than a trichromat, yet not really experiencing a truly subjective
> tetrachromatic experience or in other words Mrs M can't really
> experience any additional subjective color qualia.
>
> Or can she!? To me that would be by far the more interresting
> question in all this. Who cares what one can perceive compared to
> what it is really subjectively like!? As in, will I ever be able to
> say: "Oh wow, that gred (or whatever) color is fantastic and nothing
> like I've ever experienced", thanks for enhancing my primary visual
> cortex so it can produce this new quale in my subjective awareness!
> Now can you make me a tetrachromat and wire the additional sensors
> added to my eyes, through an addition chanel added to my optic nerve,
> to this new quale my visual cortex can now produce in my consciousness
> so I can be a subjectively full blown tetrachromat!?
>
> And are there more than just 3 (or 4) dimensions to the qualia
> possible in this physical universe so that our visual cortex can use
> such enhanced awareness to be aware of data from receptors that can
> pick up additional information not just between red and green, but
> from outside the visible spectrum altogether!? I don't just want to
> reuse the qualia I've got and map the additional spectrum my sensors
> can pick up into this! I want more qualia too! If so, you'd be able
> to do a lot more than just zip through the internet faster!!!
>
> Brent Allsop
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