Share a pipe in the House of Strange Thoughts!
Color Octaves: Sight, Sound, and Elegant Recurrence (May 8th, 2008)
Take the slowest electro-magnetic wave frequency
we can see
, double it, and we're already out of the visible range into ultraviolet. Take the slowest sound wave frequency
we can hear
, double it nine times over, and we can still hear it (if we have young, healthy ears).
An odd thing happens when we double the frequency of a sound wave. Double the frequency of a middle C, for instance, and we hear a C again, only "higher!" This organization of pitch gradations into octaves is cross-cultural, hard-wired in our brains.
What if we could see a larger swath of the electro-magnetic spectrum, as many other species can? Our first guess might be that we'd simply see new colors. But maybe there is something about our brains -- or the elegance of the universe -- that would cause us to see the same colors in new "color octaves." The red we can now see and the red just beyond our perception in the ultra-violet range would seem the same yet different, much like middle C and the C an octave above it.
Of course, hearing is different from seeing. Sound sources generate higher-frequency "overtones," and the strongest overtones occur at powers of two -- octaves. So there are clues for octave perception in the sound waves themselves. I don't think light sources produce such orderly "over-hues" (if they do, let me know!). Also, the pitch-sensitive
cochlear hair cells
in our ears differ greatly from the color-sensitive
cones
in our eyes. Cones evolved in three flavors that specialize in red, green, and blue frequencies.
Still, I like the idea that if we could see more of the electro-magnetic spectrum, we'd see delicious new combinations of familiar elements, like a higher blue mixed with a lower violet. Human consciousness rejoices in cycles: a grand slam that takes you around the bases and back home in triumph, B-flats above this B-flat, streets below your street, worlds beyond worlds spiraling toward perfection.
Klatch of other Strange Thoughts:
2009-08-25 -- The Numinous Shore of Partial Understanding: A Scenic Ride with the Base of Natural Logarithms
2009-03-17 -- Background Food: A Modest Business Proposal
2009-02-07 -- A Defense of Massive Conspiracy Theories: ...from one of the few who doubts them all.
2008-07-17 -- Immortality, Part Two: Prisms, Zombies, and Occam's Razor
2008-06-07 -- Immortality, Part One: Identity, Continuity, and the Star Trek Transporter
2008-05-14 -- Tripping out of Trees