Since the dawn of Man's intelligence, he have pondered over many questions:- 'Why am I here?', 'Is there a life after this one?' (and just how did Robert Maxwell fall off that yacht?). Here Bent' Philosopher, Kevin Strider, ponders on Man's (& Woman's) interpretation of the world around him (or her!), and threatens he'll be a regular contributor.
This is the first part of a series of personal reflections about Life, the Universe, and all that's in it.
Since the dawn of Man's intelligence, he have pondered over many questions:- 'Why am I here?', 'Where am I going to after I've died?'. Perhaps the most difficult question man has pushed through his incapable brain is, 'For what reason am I here?'.
No doubt you too have asked yourself these questions, maybe you don't care anyway, or maybe you are getting bored with all these maybes.
One question that I have asked myself, (mostly because nobody ever listens when I waffle on about philosophy), is 'Does everything within the bounds of our Universe really look like how it appears to be to our small minds?' -- or to put it more plainly, 'Are our eyes really show us what the Universe really looks like?'
You see, our eyes and brain can only *see* an object by the wavelength of light that the object reflects. Is the Yellow Pages *really* yellow, and does hair really go blonde when you bleach it? Maybe the colours that our minds see aren't the *true* colours of the things that we think we are seeing.
I will try to explain, although it won't be easy. If the design of our eyes and mind were different the colours that we see now would be different from the colours we would see if we did have alternative eyesight. For example, suppose we saw things by the heat that they gave off. Warm things could be reddish and cold things blue. The Yellow Pages would not be yellow then, but rather a sort of greenish-blue. When people spoke, you would see clouds of red coming from their mouths. We would have a different colour outlook on that which surrounds us.
The point I'm trying to make (and probably failing dismally), is just because something you see appears to look that colour, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is that colour. It only appears to be that colour because our senses evolved to what they are today. Everything in the Universe is filled with a multitude of colours and even the most dull object could be covered in a wide range of splendid shades if ounly we could see another way.
If you have a spare lifetime why not ponder over this question: Is a colour-blind person really colour-blind?
Errmmmmmmmmmmmm??? -- Ed
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