Color is real, but it’s a product of the brain rather than a feature embedded in the objects we perceive. Think of the brain as a paint-mixing machine and the environment as a black-and-white coloring book—full of substance, texture, and process, but inherently colorless. Nature is light-based and devoid of color, except within our brains. Your morning coffee cup isn’t actually green, but your brain is equipped with an electric mechanism that produces the product of “green.” Unlike the paint machines at Lowe's, we can’t physically bottle up the brain’s product of color and apply it to another canvas. Instead, we may only paint the images we perceive inside our minds, or create substances that represent our brains' colors, to interpret and embellish the outside world. Since the brain is a physical entity, color is real, even if it exists only within the brain’s intricate, electric paint-maker. We know color is real because we can test and share our experiences through color-naming. Our brains produce the color “green” so consistently that we can both identify the same green objects—trees, broccoli, green aliens—unless we’re colorblind.
Can We Bottle Up the Brain's Colors?
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Neural Correlates: There are physical correlates to color perception. For instance, specific areas of the brain like V4 are associated with color processing. These regions show activity when we see colors, which is a tangible, measurable event.
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Neurotransmitters and Color: While neurotransmitters themselves don't "contain" color, their role in the perception of color is undeniable. The release, reuptake, and degradation of these chemicals are physical processes.
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Firework Analogy: Fireworks produce light and color through chemical reactions. When ignited, they create a spectacle of light that we perceive as color. Similarly, color in the brain could be seen as the end result of a series of physical and chemical processes. It's difficult to bottle the brain's color because it is electrical activity sparked by neural networks.
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Temporal Nature: The experience of color is fleeting. It's a moment-to-moment phenomenon, created and then gone, with the brain's materials being reused for other functions immediately after.
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Neurotransmitter Recycling: After neurotransmitters are used, they're often reuptaken by neurons or broken down into precursor molecules, which can be reused to make new neurotransmitters.
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Energy Reuse: The energy used to create neural signals (and thus color perception) is part of the brain's metabolic cycle, where ATP is constantly being produced, used, and recycled.
That said, it seems unfeasible to attempt to "bottle-up" the brain's color, but it's an exciting thought experiment.