this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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[SquiddyTron] Just Act Cool (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by Stamets to c/comicstrips
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[–] [email protected] 80 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Please note being colorblind doesn't mean everything is in gray, that's only in very rare cases and isn't the case for dogs.

Most eyes see color by having cells that are sensitive only to certain wavelengths of light. This is normally a bell curve, which means a those cells are sensitive to a larger part of the spectrum. There can also be overlap in the spectrum different cells are sensitive to.

The concept of color isn't a physical thing, the cells just respond to parts of the spectrum. The brain however interprets those signals and assigns concepts to those signals. This is what we call color. At a young age we teach our children if you see this signal we call this red, this signal we call blue etc. Because this only happens in the brain this is somewhat subjective and we can have colors that aren't directly related to a wavelength of color (like magenta, but also stuff like white, black and metallic colors for example). This is also why we can trick our brains to see a color, just by mixing around some signals. This is how stuff like monitors, TVs and colored led lights work, they just emit enough energy in the right parts to trick our brains into thinking it's a certain color. Back in the day we didn't do this very well, which lead to "harsh" light, which looked right on a glance but caused headaches and fatigue or even pain when looking at it for a long time.

There are different kinds of color blindness and to different degrees. Online are simulators where you can see how people (or dogs in this case) view the world. There are also animals that are sensitive to a greater range of the spectrum, in their eyes they would think we were the colorblind ones. So colorblind doesn't usually mean literally can't see any colors. In reality a lot of people are slightly colorblind and would never notice it. It's like the stereotypical discussion of the wife wanting to paint the wall eggshell instead of off-white and the man not being able to see a difference between those two.

More reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness

[–] shroomato 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's like the stereotypical discussion of the wife wanting to paint the wall eggshell instead of off-white and the man not being able to see a difference between those two.

This is actually due to women being better at discerning colors than men.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah but note this is also a huge stereotype. Like with a lot of differences between men and women, the difference isn't that big and there is a huge overlap between men and women. On average men see a little bit less color than women, but this doesn't hold up on an individual level. And with the huge overlap it isn't by definition every woman sees better than a given man. So depending on the individual it's perfectly plausible the man in a couple actually has better color vision than the woman.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

men are also much more likely to be red/green colorblind due to genetic factors; about 10% of the male population is afflicted to about 0,5% of women.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

And what you see as blue might be entirely different than what I see as blue

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

My dad is one of the rare ones. Fully colorblind. Only sees in grays. It's honestly incredible how good he is at picking colors out though. It's only difficult when they are very similar shades of the same color

[–] Chonk 1 points 2 days ago

Nobody asked for it. But right info is good info. So thanks for it.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago

On the internet no one knows if you're a dog

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I don't get it. Is the dog colourblind?

[–] mlg 62 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Dogs are red-green color blind. They see a brighter and less detailed world when compared to humans. Peripheral vision is better than humans (dogs see more of the world), but distance is not judged quite as well. Dogs excel at night vision and the detection of moving objects. Figure 1 is a rough guesstimate of what a dog and human might see when viewing a color band (the electromagnetic spectrum).

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's why throwing red toys in grass is not as visible as we think for them

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I guess I should buy purple toys based on that chart. At least for throwing stuff in the grass.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm sorry. I'm just thinking about you throwing a purple stick, and your dog coming back with the 6 foot purple dildo from Saints Row.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

An unexpected result. But I'm sure I could find a use for a 6 foot dildo.

[–] pyre 5 points 2 days ago

I think blue is your best bet

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

All dogs are colorblind. they only have 2 types of cones so they can differentiate blue and yellow but still would potentially struggle with stuff like light blue vs dark blue. red, orange, green aren’t visible to them at all. It’s similar to red green colorblindness in humans but not exactly. They have much stronger low light and peripheral vision though

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (3 children)

So they don't see in monochrome, like in the comic? Which makes the comic weird.

And when you call them colourblind isn't that only by human standards? Aren't all humans then colourblind by insect standards?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes, they see some color

Correct, calling them colorblind is a misnomer. Most insects also can’t see red though. They can see ultraviolet spectrum which is pretty cool

Trichromatic vision is primates (humans, apes, monkeys, lemurs) giving red and green

Birds, reptiles, fish, crustaceans often have tetrachromatic vision which gives more vibrancy to color. Some of these can also see the uv spectrum too

Fun fact: there are some people who have tetrachromatic vision. It’s a genetic mutation on the X chromosome so those born with 2 X chromosomes are far more likely to have it (~15% vs ~8% for xy). just having the mutation doesn’t mean you’ll have functioning 4th cone cells though. And it’s one of those “you were born this way so functionally you will always have seen the world this way” kind of things

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

There's a theory that Monet was able to see ultraviolet. Because of some surgery.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yes. It's colloquial use though. Dogs are "colorblind" by comparison. But it's not like every dog has some flaw. They see exactly as they should be.

I'm sure some dogs are actually doggy colorblind. Like a dog that has a problem with their cones and might actually see in black and white only.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 1 points 2 days ago

Spiders see in 64 different eyes. I only see with 2 eyes.

This is how spiders disappear so fast. They jump into the other dimension.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Dogs have dichromatic vision, meaning they can distinguish colors like blue and yellow, but they have trouble seeing colors like red and green.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 4 points 2 days ago

they have trouble seeing colors like red and green.

Well no wonder I never see any dogs getting their drivers liscense!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But the comic is monochrome, not dichrome.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Because that's what we were told in my time, when I was young, long time ago, in ancient time, that dogs are seeing in black & white

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Dogs cant differentiate red and green because they only have two types of color receptors (cones). Theyd percieve it similar to someone who is red-green colorblind.