Tag: vision

Is Everyone Else A Robot? The Problem Of Consciousness

There is a philosophical theory about whether things truly exist or not, called solipsism.  The main thrust of this theory that we can only be sure of our own existence, not of the existence of anything or anyone outside of us.

A truly solipsistic person can never know whether the people that they meet are real or just figments of their imagination.  For all the solipsist knows, they are just a brain floating in a tank, experiencing whatever stimuli are zapped into their vestigial spinal cord.

Solipsists are rarely fun at parties, not least because they can’t be sure that anyone else has actually shown up.

Perhaps that’s a little unfair to solipsism, but this theory brings up an interesting question.

Can we ever be sure that anyone else experiences the world the way we do?

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Chimerical Colours – How to See the Impossible

Pick a colour, any you like.  Now picture it in your head.  Easy enough, right?  Now picture a colour that doesn’t exist.  Something brighter than white, or perhaps darker than black.  It seems impossible, but it can be done.

Chimerical colours are shades that cannot exist in the real-world, but can be perceived due to the way in which our eyes see colour.  They are part of a larger collection of hues called impossible colours.

To understand how chimerical colours work, we need to understand how we see colour in the first place.  (If you want to skip straight to the demo, scroll to the bottom!)

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