Today, while I was attending an honors banquet, a girl in my class and her boyfriend were arguing over whether or not black was a color. When she had somewhat convinced him that it wasn’t (I say somewhat because the argument was more-or-less ending and he didn’t have a rebuttal), I asked “Wait, are you saying I can’t paint with black paint?” She conceded that, of course black paint can be used to paint with, but that black wasn’t technically a color. At which point I explained that we were likely using two different definitions of color, and that we should explain what we mean. I gave two definitions:
1] The various shade which a human eye was seeing and the brain was processing.
2] The specific wavelength of light that a human eye can pick up.
The boyfriend and I were using definition 1, where as she was using definition 2. And with that cleared up, the debate ended.
Note: Both definitions aren’t word for word, but somewhat close. I was simply making the distinction between the wavelength itself and the process of seeing something and placing it in a certain color category.
By her definition, the yellow color you see on a computer screen is not a color at all, since it’s made up of two wavelengths of light which happen to stimulate the red and green cone cells in your retina in approximately the same way that yellow light would.
Today, while I was attending an honors banquet, a girl in my class and her boyfriend were arguing over whether or not black was a color. When she had somewhat convinced him that it wasn’t (I say somewhat because the argument was more-or-less ending and he didn’t have a rebuttal), I asked “Wait, are you saying I can’t paint with black paint?” She conceded that, of course black paint can be used to paint with, but that black wasn’t technically a color. At which point I explained that we were likely using two different definitions of color, and that we should explain what we mean. I gave two definitions: 1] The various shade which a human eye was seeing and the brain was processing. 2] The specific wavelength of light that a human eye can pick up. The boyfriend and I were using definition 1, where as she was using definition 2. And with that cleared up, the debate ended.
Note: Both definitions aren’t word for word, but somewhat close. I was simply making the distinction between the wavelength itself and the process of seeing something and placing it in a certain color category.
One could argue that definition 2 is Just Wrong, because it implies that purple isn’t a color (purple doesn’t have a wavelength, it is non-spectral).
By her definition, the yellow color you see on a computer screen is not a color at all, since it’s made up of two wavelengths of light which happen to stimulate the red and green cone cells in your retina in approximately the same way that yellow light would.
This will replace Eliezer’s tree falling in a forest sound as my go-to example of how an algorithm feels on the inside about wrong questions.
Huzzah! That’s all too common a problem… sometimes the main problem...