I do think that understanding the mechanics of color vision is not necessary to explain red to the rider. The rider is totally capable of undertanding things like “these things are distinguishable by an attribute that you are not directly aware of, but that is a lot like the difference between green and blue objects to you, and similar to how an eagle is able to see much farther than you can, and similar to how a dog can smell things you cannot” and many similar sentences. I do not think the concept of red has become qualitatively easier to describe with the onset of modern neuroscience (though it has definitely gotten quantitatively easier).
Sorry, I wasn’t clear, the analogy I have in mind for color vision is trying to explain red to someone who lives in a black-and-white-world and doesn’t have any experience of color at all.
I don’t know how much it matters, but I think you’re generalizing from fictional evidence here, in the following sense: If someone truly had no experience of colour, I do not expect that showing them red objects would likely give them much idea of what the experience of seeing red things is like for people who have lived with colour vision all their lives. (Compare those experiments in which cats were raised with no horizontal lines in their environment and grew up insensitive to horizontal features.)
I do think that understanding the mechanics of color vision is not necessary to explain red to the rider. The rider is totally capable of undertanding things like “these things are distinguishable by an attribute that you are not directly aware of, but that is a lot like the difference between green and blue objects to you, and similar to how an eagle is able to see much farther than you can, and similar to how a dog can smell things you cannot” and many similar sentences. I do not think the concept of red has become qualitatively easier to describe with the onset of modern neuroscience (though it has definitely gotten quantitatively easier).
Sorry, I wasn’t clear, the analogy I have in mind for color vision is trying to explain red to someone who lives in a black-and-white-world and doesn’t have any experience of color at all.
I don’t know how much it matters, but I think you’re generalizing from fictional evidence here, in the following sense: If someone truly had no experience of colour, I do not expect that showing them red objects would likely give them much idea of what the experience of seeing red things is like for people who have lived with colour vision all their lives. (Compare those experiments in which cats were raised with no horizontal lines in their environment and grew up insensitive to horizontal features.)