Maybe it’s better to start from obvious things. Color experience, for example. Can you tell which light of traffic lights is illuminated while you are not using position of light and you aren’t asking himself which color it is? Is there something in your perception of different lights that allows you to tell that they are different?
The cones in the eye detect three different aspects of light (redness, greenness, blueness) and these are sent to the brain in three different fibers. By this mechanism we see there’s nothing magic going on in telling the difference between two colors. I guess the rods (which detect variation in brightness) are more relevant to the question of which light is on though.
I doubt that you think about rods and cones when you are deciding if it’s safe to cross the road. The question is: is there something in your perception of illuminated traffic light, that allows you to say that it is red or green or yellow? Or maybe you just know that it is green or yellow, but you can’t see any differences but position and luminosity?
I don’t understand what the question is getting at. You’re right that I don’t think about cones when I check which color a light is, but this is the mechanism by which it enters my brain: since different lights enter my brain in different ways it is no surprise I can differentiate between them.
I don’t understand what the question is getting at.
I am getting there. There’s a phenomenon called blindsight type 1. Try to imagine that you have “color blindsight”, i.e. you can’t differentiate between colors, but you can guess above chance what color it is. In this condition you lack qualia of colors.
Maybe it’s better to start from obvious things. Color experience, for example. Can you tell which light of traffic lights is illuminated while you are not using position of light and you aren’t asking himself which color it is? Is there something in your perception of different lights that allows you to tell that they are different?
The cones in the eye detect three different aspects of light (redness, greenness, blueness) and these are sent to the brain in three different fibers. By this mechanism we see there’s nothing magic going on in telling the difference between two colors. I guess the rods (which detect variation in brightness) are more relevant to the question of which light is on though.
I doubt that you think about rods and cones when you are deciding if it’s safe to cross the road. The question is: is there something in your perception of illuminated traffic light, that allows you to say that it is red or green or yellow? Or maybe you just know that it is green or yellow, but you can’t see any differences but position and luminosity?
I don’t understand what the question is getting at. You’re right that I don’t think about cones when I check which color a light is, but this is the mechanism by which it enters my brain: since different lights enter my brain in different ways it is no surprise I can differentiate between them.
I am getting there. There’s a phenomenon called blindsight type 1. Try to imagine that you have “color blindsight”, i.e. you can’t differentiate between colors, but you can guess above chance what color it is. In this condition you lack qualia of colors.