Color Theory

Humans by their very nature tend to categorize things. It's how we learn as children. We start out very simply with "me" and "things that are not me." Then "things that are not me" start to get put into boxes like letters, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, whatever. I spent a lot of time in the color box. I have this strange compulsion to put things in color order. Markers, colored pencils, thread, floss, yarn, fabric...it doesn't matter. I need them to be in color order.


The reason we put colors in the order we do is because they belong in that order. Each color as perceived by the eye has a different wavelength. Red is the longest, violet the shortest. ROYGBIV is not an accident or an arbitrary arrangement. Even more interesting is that white is technically a combination of all colors, while black is the absence of color. Things look red because all of the colors except red are being absorbed while red is being reflected at us.


Being just a credit or so shy of an accidental minor in philosophy, this is kind of an interesting thing. Our brains are interpreting light that is reflected back at us. Sometimes our brains are fooled. How can we tell if anything truly exists if all we have is a (sometimes) faulty interpretation made by our brains? Hmmm...