Mutants with 4-colour vision!
November 28, 2000 4:54 PM   Subscribe

Mutants with 4-colour vision! And you thought the magnetic kid was just the beginning...
posted by hobbes (21 comments total)
 
This mutant menace must be stopped...
posted by owillis at 5:14 PM on November 28, 2000


Oh crap, owillis! I took the quiz, and even though the website is broken, I answered "yes" to 12 out of the 13 questions! Do you think... Oh God... I... I gotta go.
posted by whatnotever at 7:08 PM on November 28, 2000


Actually, someone I know may be a tetrachromat. (Identity withheld so Project Wideawake will leave her alone.) In addition to a heightened color sense, she has a phenomenal ability to remember color. She buys a lot of fabric, and can match exact shades from memory, which I understand to be very unusual.
posted by harmful at 7:49 PM on November 28, 2000


Is it possible that in the years gone by genetic mutations in people have been stiffled by the mutant being killed for being an evil warlock or witch?
posted by Zool at 7:58 PM on November 28, 2000


I wonder if perfect pitch is similarly a mutation?

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 8:00 PM on November 28, 2000


rebecca: yeah, the hero's name would be PhonePhreakBoy. :)

(hey, i my post on metafilter got linked by a post on metafilter. how meta!)
posted by pnevares at 9:55 PM on November 28, 2000


the whole definition of what is "normal" is only based on the level of detail that our technology can detect, so perhaps as technology gets better we will find that normal may not be what we think it is...and That is pretty damn cool.
posted by th3ph17 at 10:05 PM on November 28, 2000


CMYK, the only colors you'll ever need.
posted by lagado at 11:20 PM on November 28, 2000


I hereby move that the additional color tetrachromats can see be named "octarine."
posted by grimmelm at 12:01 AM on November 29, 2000


theoretically the only other colors there would be to see are ultraviolet and infrared. if they see colors beyond that, it's all in their head. I bet they hear dogs telling them to kill too.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:14 AM on November 29, 2000


Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.

posted by straight at 6:36 AM on November 29, 2000


What quiz? Where? I wanna take the quiz! Is it supposed to tell ya if you're likely to be a tetrachromat?

I've always seen certain colors a little.... differently from other people, particularly those that are very very close to the line between blue and green. I've spent hours arguing with people that they're really on the green side of the line, but other folks see them on the blue side of the line (the same object).

Hmmm.... I wanna be a tetrachromat! I wanna be special, not just a freak!!!!!!!! :)

Who knows... I *am* a fabric geek, come to think of it... hmmmmmmmm, maybe that means something.
posted by beth at 6:59 AM on November 29, 2000


Beth: that would be the (broken) "Are you a mutant?" quiz on "Senator Kelly's" site.

Straight: quoting Marvin is cool. =]
Arthur: You mean you can see into my mind?
Marvin: Yes.
Arthur: And?
Marvin: It amazes me how you manage to live in anything that small.

posted by Aaaugh! at 7:16 AM on November 29, 2000


[lagado] CMYK, the only colors you'll ever need.

Yeah, if you're a printer.

[ZachsMind] theoretically the only other colors there would be to see are ultraviolet and infrared. if they see colors beyond that, it's all in their head. I bet they hear dogs telling them to kill too.

Maybe they can't see any "new" colors, but they can see the standard spectrum of colors in higher detail and probably with higher resolution between different shades.

[Craydrygu] But those us with "normal" vision will never know what it's like to see through their eyes. And it's not like they can explain it to us, either, just like explaining the way you see to a colorblind person

Just like I, as a color-vision-deficient-person (I can see color, but not necessarily the same way you do ;), can't explain why I mix up some reds and greens, why blue looks gray sometimes and why gray looks green sometimes. Of course, it's you who has the weird vision.
posted by daveadams at 9:04 AM on November 29, 2000


Carnies: the original mutants, let's not forget them. Although I doubt that people would pay to see someone who can see more colours than them.
posted by riffola at 9:10 AM on November 29, 2000


I want a set of cones that are hardwired to the pleasure centers of my brain so I go into ecstasy when I see just the right shade of irridescent puce.
posted by plinth at 12:05 PM on November 29, 2000


CMYK, the only colors you'll ever need.

hey now, don't diss hexachrome...

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:03 PM on November 29, 2000


[ZachsMind] theoretically the only other colors there would be to see are ultraviolet and infrared. if they see colors beyond that, it's all in their head.

This is incorrect. Normal human vision can't tell the difference between, for example, a pure yellow beam of light (i.e. one with a single wavelength characteristic of yellow), and a beam of light that is composed of red and green light mixed equally. But these are in fact markedly different situations and the fact that we see them the same way is just a quirk of evolution. A convenient one, to be sure, as it has allowed us to invent things like television and RGB computer displays, but still, it's just the way we see. There's no reason a mutant eyeball couldn't see things differently.
posted by kindall at 2:09 PM on November 29, 2000


out, damn tag.
posted by kindall at 2:09 PM on November 29, 2000


Octarine, hell. Gimme squant.
posted by rodii at 5:03 PM on November 29, 2000


(closing tag)
posted by cCranium at 5:04 PM on November 29, 2000


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