re GR Title

[Jeffrey Reid]

On Wed, 1 May 1996, Teen Age Riot wrote:
> > > Also by our brain's tendency to
> > > 'spontaneously' categorize a spectrum of colour into seven distinct
> > > colours.
> > >
> > Wether you see 7 colors or 7 million they are all there in the rainbow,
> > the effect would exist even if all humans were colorblind.  Our attachment
> > of Roy G. Biv to the rainbow is simply our way of percieving a physical
> > phenomenon, so I would argue that the cultural aspects of color perception
> > have little to do with the cause of the rainbow, and more to do with its
> > interpretation.
>
> So are you saying that perception of physical phenomena isn't affected by
> preconceptions ground in through cultural learning?  Oooh, don't go there...
>
No, I am sayting that perception of physical phenomenon (in the classical
[i.e. not quantum] regime) doesn't effect the phenomenon.  Wether or not
we see the colors of the rainbow doesn't effect the light being refracted
by the raindrops.  This comment was in response to the original author's
linking the _cause_ for a rainbow to the perception of it, which I find
tenuous.

Jeff

---------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey G Reid       			jgreid at u.washington.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
"O holy mathematics, may I for the rest of my days be consoled
 by perpetual intercourse with you, consoled for the wickedness
 of man and the injustice of the Almighty!"  -- Isidore Ducasse