Me, anticipating the death of the world capitalist system at the hands of a right-wing populist Amerikan prez..
Great question! The idea of color being arbitrary depends on how you define "color"—whether you mean it as a physical property of light or a perceptual experience in the brain.
1️⃣ Physically, Color Is Not Arbitrary
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Light exists as electromagnetic waves, and different wavelengths correspond to different colors:
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Short wavelengths (~450 nm) → Blue
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Medium wavelengths (~530 nm) → Green
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Long wavelengths (~650 nm) → Red
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These wavelengths exist independently of perception, meaning a 650 nm wave is objectively "red" in the sense that it always has that wavelength.
2️⃣ Perceptually, Color Could Be Arbitrary
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Our brain interprets these wavelengths based on how our cone cells respond.
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If our brains were wired differently, we could associate 650 nm with "blue" instead of "red", and no one would know the difference.
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Some evidence for this idea:
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Inverted Qualia Hypothesis: Philosophers speculate that two people could see colors differently (e.g., my red could be your blue), but we’d never know because we use the same words to describe them.
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Language & Color Perception: Some languages don’t have separate words for blue and green, influencing how speakers categorize colors.
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3️⃣ Alien or Artificial Vision Could See Colors Differently
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A species with different types of photoreceptors could experience totally different colors.
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Even in humans, conditions like synesthesia cause some people to associate colors with sounds or numbers in ways that are "arbitrary" to most people.
Conclusion
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The wavelengths of light are objective, but the experience of color is subjective and could, in theory, be different.
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If we had different biology, we might call "red" something else—or even see colors humans can’t imagine!
