Colors Podcast

I thought it was interesting how the podcast talked about where is the color and where does it come from. When the two hosts talked to the neurosurgeon, they discussed if a grape is the same color for everyone, a human, a dog and a whale etc. The neurosurgeon then stated the question

 “would aliens see this red.” Then the conversation turned to how color is percieved in a different ways by different living things. This reminds me of how sometimes, humans take color and what they are able to see for granted. Most people can see all of the colors of the rainbow, but has the podcast was discussing, 10% of men are color blind and dogs color vision consist of blue and yellow. Therefore, not everyone sees color the same. I think as humans we often forget that and we take advantage of the different colors that we are able to see. I think if humans experienced life without color or being color blind, they would have a different experience of the world.

Additionally, I thought it was fascinating how Gladstone originally thought that Homer and all other greeks were color blind. This is due to the lack of mention of color is Greek writers work. Therefore, Gladstone believed that Greeks could only see black and white and a touch of red. I’ve red some of Homer’s work and to me this was never a thought. However, I can see how Gladstone could make this statement when analyzing Greek work. I found this story interesting and I never thought that this was a conclusion to be made about the Greeks. 

Lastly, I thought it was interesting how they said red was the first color and easy to produce and blue was the hardest color. For a long time, no one could produce or had a different word for the color blue. The only people who did was the Egyptians. In accordance to this, the podcast talked about the Himba Tribe. When they were given 12 color squares that were all identical expect for one. They were asked which one was different. 11 of the squares were green; however one square was blue. The Himba found this distinction to be difficult because they didn’t have their own word for blue. If we were to look at these color squares today, it was so obvious that 11 squares were green and the one was blue. However, the Himba struggled with this activity. The podcast comes to the conclusion that having a word for blue unlocks ability to see blue. Without word blue, one can still see it the color blue, but it is harder to spot and doesn’t jump out at you. Personally, I never would have thought that blue was so difficult to identify and come up with a word for. Its interesting how many people struggled with blue, yet it is a primary color and a foundation for other colors.