Color theory

22Mar09

So a few years back, I think I was in middle school, I thought up this theory that I now call the color theory.

I’m pretty sure someone else or many others have come up with it before me, but that’s not the point. I’ve been trying to find an error in this, so any comments would be appreciated.

Ok, here goes.

Imagine yourself and one other person standing over a stone. You both are human, and alike in characteristics, but you are different beings.

Both of you are looking at this one stone with two different pairs of eyes and minds. Two different perspectives for one object.

Now imagine the stone having a color. Don’t name it. Just see it.

The color theory presents the idea that you and this other person are seeing this one stone differently. You see it as one color, the other person sees it as another color. But there are no names for these colors, so you cannot tell the other person what color you see. Instead, you and this other person decide that the color (which you believe is the same as what the other person is seeing) should be named. So you both decide to name it ‘black.’

Now imagine this happening in the beginning of time. You, along with other humans, are creating and coding the first language. This color, and other colors in the world, are seen differently by each pair of eyes and each mind. But everyone agrees on naming each color the same name. To you, your ‘black’ is the same ‘black’ as someone else’s. There is never any room for confusion or overlapping of perspective. You each carry your own perspective, while thinking and living and communicating under the same pattern.

How would you ever be able to figure out that in fact, the colors are different? How could you ever relate what you see to another person?

The color theory really scared me when I was young. It made me feel really alone. Mostly because I knew I wasn’t just thinking about colors. I know there’s a way to prove that the colors I see are the same as the colors you see. But what if those ways to prove it all wrong, were the colors? What if the color theory permeated into every single part of existence, every piece of whatever our mind could lick? That’s what scares me. The thought of connections and links based on man-made chains. The thought that we don’t even use half of our brain. That our balance rests upon a naive understanding of who we are. What else is out there that we haven’t yet touched?

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