What if you and I see different colors? Like when I see red, it’s the same as when you see blue and vice versa? A classic Deep Thoughts thought experiment that isn’t actually that deep, because everyone thought of it when they were like 15. If we each saw different colors, there would be no way to know. End of thought experiment.

But here’s a deep thought. The fact that we see different colors is just a true fact about the world, and we have a way of knowing that it’s true. Because when I see red and green, they’re on opposite ends of the color sensory spectrum, while for other people the difference between red and green is much more subtle. We do have ways to compare private experiences! Take that, Wittgenstein!

Anyway, colorblind glasses. This is a product that supposedly helps colorblind people see color. I learned about them from a video by Anne Reardon. Reports on effectiveness seem pretty mixed, with some saying the it makes the colors look more vibrant, some saying it helps them perform better in color tests, and some saying it doesn’t make much difference at all.

Supposedly the glasses work by filtering particular wavelengths of light. Kind of like laser safety glasses, except that I can actually find detailed specs sheets showing how laser safety glasses work, while the colorblind glasses are kept a mysterious secret. I suppose there are some wavelengths of light that are about equally visible to red and green cones in the eye, and these wavelengths don’t really help you distinguish color, they’re just noise. So maybe by blocking them out, these glasses help some colorblind people see colors better?

The problem with the colorblind glasses is they’re trying to offer a sensory experience, or at least that’s part of the sales pitch. People with full color vision have an emotional attachment to the sensory experience of distinguishing red and green, and they want their colorblind friends to share in that experience. As an ace I find that problematic. What if instead we abandoned all pretense of creating a sensory experience of color, and focused exclusively on the functionality of distinguishing red and green?

The thing is, you don’t need fancy laser safety glasses to mechanically distinguish color. You could use much more ancient technology, like stained glass. What if we had glasses that are red in one eye, green in the other? You could distinguish the colors based on which eye could see them. Or another way to do it is to have a subtly textured green filter, so that you could use the texture to identify red.

I’m sure there’s some problem with this solution, or else we would already be doing it. Maybe they’d be pretty annoying to wear. Or maybe the functionality of colored vision just isn’t important enough.