If we had evolved around a red dwarf, would red be our white? And we’d have primary colors that make up red?

  • wagesj45@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    White light is just white cause our sun blasts out a big rainbow mix that our eyes evolved to handle. But like, imagine we grew up orbiting a chill red dwarf star instead… our eyes would be all tuned differently, vibing mostly with reds, making red our new “white.” Even our language and color wheels would shift, calling reddish hues “neutral.” Wild thought: even crazier when we’re still perceiving this existence through our own lens.

    • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      That makes me think of how it would possibly limit the spectrum of colors we could see.

      Say, if we orbited a red giant instead; like you said, red would be the center color in the spectrum that constitutes our white. Our perception of color would revolve around red as a baseline, and the visible spectrum would go a bit up and a bit down from there.

      Since the width of the spectrum can only be guessed, let’s presume that it would be as wide as our vision here on planet earth.

      Therefore, space Newton would use a prism and discover these colors:

      • infra-infra-infra red.
      • infra-infra-red
      • infra-red
      • red
      • orange
      • yellow
      • green

      So our TV remotes and motion sensors would emit ultra-green light. Or as some crazy Sci fi writers would call it: blue.