Below is a draft of a Thought Experiment assignment I recently received.
\Inverted Color Spectrum
Hypothesis:
The hypothesis I choose for this thought experiment is; I know that other people mean the same color when they say ‘red’ as I mean when I say ‘red’. I believe that this hypothesis is true. Colors aren’t only associated visually but are associated with thoughts and feelings, as well as what we see visually. Certain types of colors can be associated with that feeling it might give you or even what I like to call “temperature feelings”. Temperature feelings would be a ‘cool’ feeling or a ‘warm feeling’. For example red is a warm color and blue is a cool color. With an inverted color spectrum not all feelings or “temperature feelings” would hold true.
Experimental Setup:
One spring afternoon you walk outside and it’s a beautiful day, the grass is green, the sky is blue and your beautiful red and pink flowers are finally in full bloom. You think to yourself “this is a beautiful day.” Then you walk over to pick some flowers from the garden. You decide to pick the red ones because red is your significant others favorite color. Yet,is the red you see the same color that your significant other sees? How would you know? When you bring the red flowers back to your significant other who says “those are beautiful, you know red is my favorite color.” Yet again, what color are they really seeing?It is impossible to be in another person’s mind frameand see through their eyes. What if the red that they saw was actually blue through your eyes and your yellow was their red? When teaching a baby or young child what colors are, we teach them by pointing at a color and saying the word to associate with that specific color. As weird as it might seem to picture the sky red, the grass purple and your “red flowers,” yellow this would be the norm for them since they have never known any different. This would be normal for them just as what you see is normal for you.
Experimental Results:
After trying to picture a completely inverted world, I almost agreed that it could not be proven. Just as when someone said red they might not be seeing the same red that I’m seeing. For example red, yellow and green stop lights are and have been in the same order,so you could nottell any difference. Red is still on top, yellow still in the middle and green on bottom. Even if it did not have a specific order it would not matter since another person would have been taught that way.What about primary colors? There are three primary colors and they make up a whole lot more colors. What might someone else be seeing specifically? Would those three primary colors mix to make a color that would not logically work? Being a visual person I tested on paper the three primary colors in different color pens.I wanted to see if there might be a mistake and see if possibly the primary colors would not add up to make a specific color. As it turns out, they all added up and it would still work if another person’s color spectrum was inverted. But what if someone’s color spectrum was only partially inverted? Would that matter? And again it didn’t, everything added up. At this point I was almost completely convinced that anyone else could have an inverted color spectrum and I would never know.
Are colors really only visual? Is there not more to colors that just seeing them? When you go to the beach, is it relaxing?Why? The sounds, the calming colors, the ocean.The calming colors? That’s it! Colors are associated with feelings too. For example: red is associated with anger, orange with energy, yellow with happiness, green with jealousy, blue with calmness and purple with mystery. These are only some of the feelings associated with color. But when I think of these colors I feel these feelings. So, would this mean that if someone had an inverted color spectrum that they would have an inverted “feeling spectrum” as well? That would be impossible because you can judge this by their actions. Take a individual placed in a red room and their jumping up and down smiling because they feel happy. Their red is actually your yellow, this would mean that their anger is actually happiness yet their actions show otherwise. One could not invert the color spectrum and their feelings properly without noticing something is not right.Many companies rely on colors to help change a consumers mood or help subliminally and subconsciously feel a certain way that possibly could increase the outcome the company is aiming for. As I think about it, the colors of the store I manage is a sky blue and white color theme because it helps make the customer feel calm, comfortable and reassured. The way my companies store is designed, reminds me of a happy, calm place. How the companies store is designed now seems to be more inviting than the dark ugly green and light brown colors they used before it was remolded. The company did this intentionally to help create a better mood and experience for the customers than it did before.
Another way I found a defect in the inverted color spectrum was when associating a color with a “temperature feeling”.Of the six colors in the rainbow; red, orange and yellow are considered to be warm colors because they give you a warm feeling. Blue, green and purple are considered to be a cool color because they give you a cool calm feeling.By inverting the color spectrum we might get blue, red and purple to be considered warm colors. But in reality red is the only color that gives you that warm feelings. This goes back to someone having inverted feelings, which we have already proven could notbe true. These two factors; feelings and “temperature feelings” play a major part of what the color actually is.
Conclusion:
When one uses the world color, most of the time we think visual. We subconsciously associate colors with so much more than that. After more thoroughly analyzing what colors actually mean,I came to the conclusion that one can not possibly see a different color than what I see. When pointing to the “red flower”or the “blue sky” I know that they mean the same color as I do because of that general overallfeeling that it gives you. In conclusion, the hypothesis is true; I know that other people mean the same color when they say ‘red’ as I mean when I say ‘red’.









NOTES

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

RED	YELLOW	BLUE
RED	YELLOW	=ORANGE
YELLOW	BLUE	=GREEN
BLUE	RED	=PURPLE

Here are my notes on the inversion of the color spectrum. I wanted to see if maybe colors would not add up but then I realized that they did always add up because the color was just named differently than what we normally see. This would be what someone saw if their color spectrum was inverted in certain ways. The top three colors are supposed to be the primary colors, and the three lines below it are what a person would see if you mixed the primary colors two together.