h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Clive!

Sorry to disappoint you Clive, but your view of the world is not so unique; my colourblindness is exactly as you describe your own. Quite often at night I've mistaken a green traffic light in the distance for an oncoming motorbike.

Both my mother and father are colourblind, so I didn't stand a chance of getting away without it, did I?

It's nice to see somebody with a positive view of their affliction; mine annoys me no end. I'd love to be able to see the world as it really is.

Apparently it's now possible to buy colour correcting contact lenses from one or two outlets in the UK, but they cost over £700 I'm told.

Ouch!

Well there isn't a handshake smiley so this will have to do.

Nice of you to drop by Senwad. (and I'd doubly pleased that you took the time to browse around my Personal Space. )

Not dissapointed at all! Nice to meet another protanope.

I'd never thought of myself as holding an overly positive view..it fascinates me actually how this condition affects people like you and me. (I have great difficulty visualising what the world must look like with blue-green colour blindness.) And oh - how I'd love to change that name. blindness. so completely innacurate it staggers me. I can see them all, the colours, perfectly well, however, some of them just look a bit grey and are easily confused. )

I'm not sure where my colour blindness origniates from however both myself and my brother have it, but niether my mother or father do. definately one to blame of the genes!

I do rather enjoy the notion though, as you say - that we see the world at an angle to everybody else, so to speak. Opens up a whole subjective idea to y'know - what *does* the world really look like? Does anybody really know? etc. You could spend ages pondering over those sorts of questions.

I'm intriguied by the idea of the colour-correction contacts. I'd heard them discussed as a possibility. The wonders of modern science will never cease to astound and amaze me, yet..I did a paper on this sort of area at uni - faced with the option of curing the previously unassailable affliction that I have in so many ways made a part of my life - would I want to change it? I think I'd like to try the contacts on. see the world just once as it is for other people. but would I want it gone for good. I'm not so certain.

Clive *feeling thoughful*

By the way - I did have a journal on my space about this a while back but I removed it for space reasons I'll see if i can go dig out the link for you now.



Here it is!

F40114?thread=182647

Enjoy!

Yup, I suppose it is interesting to consider how other people literally 'see' the world. I posted on another thread here, on the subject of colourblindness and whether it might play a part in Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD), basically feeling down on dull days - they've given it a name, lol

I don't know about you, but I can see all the colours as long as the light on them is bright enough and I'm really close to it. But even on a bright summer day, I can't see poppies, for example, in a field of grass; but my wife can spot them a mile off.

I'd like to have a go on those contact lenses too, but I think I'd probably get addicted to them. The company that makes them are crafty about it. You go for a testing session, then they make the lenses to suit your colour vision (or lack of it), but they don't last forever. I've never needed glasses or contacts, but I think I'd prefer it if they made bespoke glasses instead, then you could wear them like sunglasses. My father went there and got some a few years back, and he said when he went outside with the contacts in, it was like walking in an alien world. He could see everything really clearly for the first time. I can't imagine what that must be like. It makes you wonder though, eh?

Thanks for the link. So I'm a protanope? I've been called worse

I was having my head examined by a cambridge don once (I'm not making this up..they thought I was dyslexic - but weren't quite sure. )

and she told me the proper name for red-green colour blindess is Protanopia - so we are protanopes. huh?



I generally think I can see al things perfectly well until I realise I can't. purple is a little blighter c'os I'm forver confusing it with blue!

If I woke up one morning and some joker had painted my grass (what's left of it after the mole) orange, the sky purple, the sun lime green, and all the battleships pink; I wouldn't notice. How sad is that?
I didn't even know the Incredible Hulk was green until somebody told me; I just thought he had a good tan.

Nevermind, it could be worse; my uncle only sees in shades of grey. That definitely constitutes 'worse' in my book.