On Friday, July 13, 2012 1:23:00 PM UTC-4, Brent wrote: > > > An interesting example. The reason you can add colors out of sequence is > that the spectrum is a continuum; so between any two colors is another, > different color. This actually happened in the case of "orange". In the > time of Chaucer there was no word for "orange", it was just "the color > between red and yellow". The name for the color came from the fruit when > it was later imported from the orient. Consequently all the european > languages have almost the same word for this color. >
The spectrum is a different kind of continuum qualitatively than it is quantitatively. It really isn't accurate to even call the quantitative continuum a spectrum at all, since the continuum itself is a smooth progression of frequency-wavelength, having no spectral-like categorical distinctions itself. Consider though, that the case of orange being the combination of red+yellow is completely different from the case of either yellow or green being any combination of blue and red. This is a big deal. This is the difference between qualia and quanta. In a smooth continuum of e-m wavelengths, it would not be possible for yellow to be anything but a midway tone between red and blue. That is not how it is though. Yellow or green can each be considered primary colors (depending on whether the light is reflected or projected) so that there is no way to get to either of them from only red and blue. >From here we can also see that really any color makes no sense as a purely quantitative variable. There is no quantitative purpose for having a separate quality of 'purple' or 'orange' to adorn the combination of blue/red or red/yellow. The principle that yokes together these primary hues into secondary visual hues is almost as unexplainable mechanistically. The combination of all hues being either white or black (depending again on direct-projected or indirect-reflected modes) illustrates how qualia collapses into simpler forms, rather than simple forms building into more complex qualia. You can't make color from black and white, but you can make black and white from color, and when you do, it makes perfect sense aesthetically. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/oYna5btfZCcJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
