Let me ask you a very simple question. Why do people have different favourite colors? Why do some people like Red while some others like Blue? Some even like Yellow. If there is nothing else other than brain to interpret colors, then why people don't like the same color. Brain which is simply an organ made up of tissues which are made up of cells which are made up of molecules and atoms and other sub-atomic particles. After all every one of us has the brain made up of these things only. So if the system is the same then why does it give different output to the same inputs?
Someone would argue that it is not the work of the brain to like something or not. It is us, an individual that likes or dislikes something. Brain is just a medium to interpret inputs to provide an output. Whether to like it or not depends on us. But what is this individual? Who are we? Which part of us takes this decision to like or dislike something? A naive answer is - our Brain. But that not true and we just saw why. Then what else takes such decisions for us. Is it something else which is not restricted to our physical self? Something that is known as consciousness. It’s a very vague and general term - Consciousness. But something exists that is very personal to an individual and which defines an individual - I guess in every sense.
Ok. I cannot go any further on this topic of consciousness without thinking deeply. So let me put across one more riddle. Let’s assume that the colors have specific qualities and that for humans these qualities are the same for everyone. What I mean to say is that yellow is one color that cannot be liked by anyone whereas Blue is a color that is liked by everyone. And similarly we have list of all the shades and colors as per the likeliness. But the list is true for everyone - all Humans. Is it possible that when I say I like Blue I am actually referring to Red of someone else? And both of us are actually referring to Green which tops this list of likeliness?
Let me explain this. When I say Blue is my favourite I actually saw original green but my brain interprets it as blue or the set of cones and rods in my eyes made it blue. Similarly, when somebody else saw the same green, it looked to her as red. It is the same color and we love the same color but we interpret it differently. Still have problems understanding it? What happens when you invert an image? Not an upside down image but an image with inverted colors. It is the same image but when some processor inverts its color it looks totally different. Similarly, we add colors to the image by using filters. The object is the same but the way it is processed it looks different. Now if the copies of this image are given to two people, one in original and one inverted. Let’s assume the original is a beautiful picture and looks great while inverted one looks horrific. The one who got the original copy would love the object while the other person would hate it. The object does not change but its interpretation does.
Now, back to our example with green being on top of the list. Those who see a green object as green would have green as a favourite. Where some others who interpret blue object as green would call blue as a favourite. Another thing to be taken into consideration is our interaction with other humans. When we are learning colors, somebody teaches us these colors. They show us objects and call their color by a name and the way we interpret those colors we wire our brains to associate that color with that name. Are we sure that what the teacher saw and interpreted was the same what we saw and interpreted. There is no way to prove this. Once the light fell on the retina, how was it interpreted by the cones and rods of the eye and what was decided by the brain, nobody knows. So it is quite possible that the object was X colored whereas teacher saw it as Y and according to what she learnt long back she had a name for it Z. We saw it as A but we also follow it as Z from then on. But a friend saw it as X only but she would also follow it as Z. If this X is on top of the list then Z would be the favourite of our friend whereas for us some other color B which we can see as X would be our favourite. Pretty confusing, I know. But who said understanding life is easy.
Someone would argue that it is not the work of the brain to like something or not. It is us, an individual that likes or dislikes something. Brain is just a medium to interpret inputs to provide an output. Whether to like it or not depends on us. But what is this individual? Who are we? Which part of us takes this decision to like or dislike something? A naive answer is - our Brain. But that not true and we just saw why. Then what else takes such decisions for us. Is it something else which is not restricted to our physical self? Something that is known as consciousness. It’s a very vague and general term - Consciousness. But something exists that is very personal to an individual and which defines an individual - I guess in every sense.
Ok. I cannot go any further on this topic of consciousness without thinking deeply. So let me put across one more riddle. Let’s assume that the colors have specific qualities and that for humans these qualities are the same for everyone. What I mean to say is that yellow is one color that cannot be liked by anyone whereas Blue is a color that is liked by everyone. And similarly we have list of all the shades and colors as per the likeliness. But the list is true for everyone - all Humans. Is it possible that when I say I like Blue I am actually referring to Red of someone else? And both of us are actually referring to Green which tops this list of likeliness?
Let me explain this. When I say Blue is my favourite I actually saw original green but my brain interprets it as blue or the set of cones and rods in my eyes made it blue. Similarly, when somebody else saw the same green, it looked to her as red. It is the same color and we love the same color but we interpret it differently. Still have problems understanding it? What happens when you invert an image? Not an upside down image but an image with inverted colors. It is the same image but when some processor inverts its color it looks totally different. Similarly, we add colors to the image by using filters. The object is the same but the way it is processed it looks different. Now if the copies of this image are given to two people, one in original and one inverted. Let’s assume the original is a beautiful picture and looks great while inverted one looks horrific. The one who got the original copy would love the object while the other person would hate it. The object does not change but its interpretation does.
Now, back to our example with green being on top of the list. Those who see a green object as green would have green as a favourite. Where some others who interpret blue object as green would call blue as a favourite. Another thing to be taken into consideration is our interaction with other humans. When we are learning colors, somebody teaches us these colors. They show us objects and call their color by a name and the way we interpret those colors we wire our brains to associate that color with that name. Are we sure that what the teacher saw and interpreted was the same what we saw and interpreted. There is no way to prove this. Once the light fell on the retina, how was it interpreted by the cones and rods of the eye and what was decided by the brain, nobody knows. So it is quite possible that the object was X colored whereas teacher saw it as Y and according to what she learnt long back she had a name for it Z. We saw it as A but we also follow it as Z from then on. But a friend saw it as X only but she would also follow it as Z. If this X is on top of the list then Z would be the favourite of our friend whereas for us some other color B which we can see as X would be our favourite. Pretty confusing, I know. But who said understanding life is easy.
