BlogClan Tavern

ok so originally i was gonna write something about tetrachromacy and seeing more colors in this reply but after doing some research i realized that what i heard back when i was in elementary school was confidently wrong 😛 here’s a silly essay instead

most humans are trichromats, meaning they have three different color cones (specialized cells in the eye) that each correspond to three distinct color channels (red green blue). some organisms such as birds have a fourth color cone that corresponds to ultraviolet light, which humans cannot see; this allows them to detect more wavelengths of light (more colors!) than we can, and earns them the title of tetrachromats. (meanwhile there are overpowered mantis shrimps who have TWELVE different photoreceptors, lmao…) i don’t think there are any organisms that can see x-ray wavelengths sadly, those are just too small to be detected :((

while most humans are trichromats, there has been at least one human in history who has been observed to have a fourth different color cone (which lots of random social media sites deemed “tetrachromacy”), but this is actually not considered tetrachromacy because scientists still aren’t sure if these actually correspond to any color channel at all. these extra color cones could just be dysfunctional as far as anyone knows. if they do correspond to their own color channel, this would add a whole new dimension of color to the person with the extra color cone and they would be able to see more colors than the average human!

seeing more colors than you know exists is kind of a mind-bending thing, because you can’t imagine something you have literally never seen before. a good example of this would be all those videos of people asking chatgpt to invent a new color, and the ai does its best by describing the new color with existing colors – however, the colors that tetrachromat organisms see are completely different from the colors we see entirely. it’s almost like trying to imagine a completely new taste not based on the five most basic tastes of food (sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, sourness, and savoriness); even though your imagination seems limitless, it’s extremely difficult to imagine something that, through your perception, doesn’t exist! so sadly, for the time being, seeing any colors beyond what we can see right now is impossible

sorry for the essay wynn, i got interested by your comment lol