sin_blog

One hour of amusement, never been so inspired and entertained recently.

Left: (normal) view of the previous monitor
Right: (simulated) view of the new monitor

This is no exaggeration. All the (relatively) light colours are almost gone in the new monitor. Just when I thought a bigger monitor would improve life a bit, it brings trouble, which is what we always step into during new phases. I didn’t realize/face the problem until I saw with another computer all the grey areas which appeared white before. I knew the new display pal has sharp contrast and colours that are too sweet, but tried to convince myself that these were mere difference from monitor to monitor, which is normal. I even felt happy because everything looked so nice. But it is now discovered the contrast is so big that some elements are simply invisible rather than appearing different. Don’t know if the problem is technical or mechanical, but adjusting monitor values did not help, and the staff hasn’t replied. I have to use the old one now so as to see and tune things right as much as I can. God. If you think some of the pictures that I made lately are gloomy, don’t mistake it as suicidal hint. I just happened to have the wrong eyes.

Maybe I should say different eyes, for no eyes are “wrong”. I’m currently reading How Dogs Think by Stanley Coren (Chinese version). It says that dogs can see colours but of a limited range due to less and different cone cells in their eyes. This makes me think of a thought I had when I was younger, concerning if organisms from another planet can see the colours that we see (if they can see), or if light on another planet is different than ours. Evolution enabled us to have the ability to differentiate colours in the environment, meaning the property (possession of colours in this case) of the environment is real and it influences us in a way. But we had the potential to evolve and have the concept “colour” because we have eyes the photosensitive organs in the first place (sure, eyes are product of evolution too and are result of the environment). The conception of truth thus depends on the hardware, and the type of hardware, that we have. Differentiation of colours can also be achieved by detecting the frequency/wavelength of electromagnetic wave or molecular composition without actually having to see the colour, but since human bodies are not computers and we have eyes, the colour we see becomes the truth we hold. The majority of us claims to see more than the colour-blind, while we probably have limited colour vision as dogs do, only that we are better than some animals. Ask an alien and maybe the world appears as a map of textures instead of colours, what remotely describe the world to them.

Back to my monitor. I’ve been totally blind for areas of light shades. This makes me realize again how little we can do to accomplish a certain task if we do not have the right tools. For athletes, the right genes. It doesn’t mean blank slate is impossible, but we still have to refer to the fundamental body. If you were born a PC, it would be hard to make you think like a Mac. If my monitor is mechanically flawed, it is hard to tune it to normal. Right, back to my monitor. Help.