White Rose

Color of Rose

Color of Rose:    

I generally get attracted to intriguing things in life. At times I get so much curious in trying to unravel and understand petty and small things that I forget about my surroundings. My mind goes in that mode but gets lighted when something clicks suddenly.  Now I am not very young but I have not forgotten my first love, call it prying, unduly curious or simply inquisitiveness, but I get some kick out of it.

One of the curious thing that is bothering me for quite sometime now is the phenomenon called ‘color’ like the color of rose.  My concern here is not the literal meaning of the term color that we use in day to day work. My curiosity is deep: whether color is part of light?, does color has any physical existence? And so on. It sounds uncommon, but when I delve deeper I get perplexed.

To get to the heart of the matter, I am putting down following question to the reader. To help appreciate my predicament, I am also trying to reach to a probable answer, which I think may not be inline with general understanding.

QUESTION-01:

Imagine that a grown-up visually impaired (since birth) person, named here as Mesha, is required to be told how a white rose is different from red rose in exactly same way as we differentiate them or how and what forms the rainbow ?  Whether it is possible to explain him how the colors of a rose or a rainbow look like?

 a)     Yes

b)    No

Let us approach the problem:

First try to define color:

The definition of color (as I understood) is based on information gleamed from various web sites. 

Color is a visual perception, an ability to gather information by measuring the characteristics of light such as hue, saturation, brightness, wavelength, frequency, luminance and categories them to red, yellow, blue, green and others. The characteristics of light enable humans to differentiate otherwise identical objects. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision. The various physiological components involved in vision are referred to collectively as the visual system.

Why color has no meaning to Mesha:

Mesha is devoid of visual system, he can not perceive or understand the color in same way as we do? If Mesha is offered a rose, he knows what rose is, it is a flower, it has rosy smell, no problem. But if he is told it is a red rose, he has a big problem?

I have never interacted with a visually impaired man (from birth). I have repeatedly processed the language in my mind hundred times to find an answer of making Mesha understand what is red in red rose.  But how hard I try, how deep I delve, every time my brain goes numb, blank, zero and the feeling of helplessness overwhelms me as I go further. There is nothing in my mind to fall back on. I feel a kind of hallucination, a delirium, a vacuum. There are no words, no way to tell him how a white rose  is different from red rose?

Close eyes and put yourself in his place, what must be going through his mind?

Is Mesha the only blind?

No, we all are blind in some way or other.  The normal human beings are able to see a small fraction of a long electromagnetic spectrum. We can not visualize spectrum on either side of narrow visible window. We can not see radio waves, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, X-Ray, Gama Ray etc. If sun suddenly shuts window of visible light we will all be blind, like Mesha. We can not sense, we have no method to know what would be the color of ‘microwave’ or ‘gama ray’ or ‘x-ray’ in same way as Mesha can not know the color of ‘visible ray’. 

Red, green, blue colors (or combinations) are senses unique to the individual, humans or animals. These are the names given to the product of sense created by light in the brain of beholder. When two persons are agreeing that the rose is a red rose, subconsciously both are assuming that the other person is getting same sense of red as he is? Confirmation of assumption can be done only by matching the measurable (physical) properties of light, such as wavelength, frequency etc, which are present in the light itself. Does light contain color in measurable form?

The eye is very often compared to a camera. But it is a crude comparison. Camera does not have its own senses. It can sense light due to its properties other than colors, where as our visual system see light purely as colors.

On similar analogy, it would be next to impossible to explain a deaf (by birth) the meaning of the sound, the sound of music. If you show him a guitar, he knows what it is and understands its string vibrates when we pluck them. But if you tell him that vibrating strings produce beautiful sound and thin string has different sound than thick string, he will be totally at loss. He does not understand the term sound or music. His memory is blank, he cannot relate. He may have his own way of interpreting or perceiving the term sound but the exact replica of his perception will be impossible for us to know. 

Sound is produced by mechanical vibrations which are charactarised by generic properties of waves such as frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, intensity, speed and direction. These mechanical vibrations can travel through all forms of matter, gases, liquids, solids and plasma, however it can not travel through vacuum.

Sound is longitudinal wave and it shows reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference. Human beings can hear sounds within frequencies from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. Waves lower than 20Hz are called infrasound and above 20KHz are called ultrasound and human beings can not detect both. Other species have a different range of hearing. Dogs can perceive vibrations higher than 20 kHz.

Earth’s physical phenomenon such as fire,rain, wind, surf, or earthquake produce unique sounds. Many animals have the ability to detect and communicate these sounds. Humans have developed culture and technology that allows them to generate, record, transmit, and broadcast sound.

Different people enjoy different types of music and I have no way to know why a certain person enjoys a particular type of song which irritates me to no end. Animals have hearing ability to which we are blind. Detecting a mechanical vibration is all right, the issue here is whether it is creating sound in same way as we are thinking of or whether it is creating sound at all I have no way to know.  

Smell has no meaning for an anosmic (by birth).  We observe many time that some people put hanky to their nose, as they find certain strong smell intolerable. Imagine how painful it might be to a dog whose smelling power is ten or twenty times stronger to humans. Similarly an ageusiac (by birth) can never be told the meaning of taste of say honey or salt.

I believe, the ability to sense color, sound, taste, smell etc are all intrinsic to the brain of beholder. These senses can not exist outside. It may not be possible to manufacture a machine or robot who will be able to detect and measure properties of light or mechanical waves solely based on color or sound. It will need physical properties such as frequency, wavelength etc which exists and can be measured. 

 Answer to the Question-01 is left to the reader. But I know my answer.

About the Author

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