Food

[Modified]

I agree with what you are saying, people will always call yellow, yellow. But the point is since everyones brain is different, your yellow could look to me like your green does.

Again, I think you are implying a little man in the brain who is looking at the processed visual input and calling a hue yellow. I contend that "your yellow could look to me like my green does" is essentially meaningless, as is "your sweet could taste to me like my salty does", or "your hot could feel to me like my itchy does".

 

[schlitt]

Again, I think you are implying a little man in the brain who is looking at the processed visual input and calling a hue yellow. I contend that "your yellow could look to me like my green does" is essentially meaningless, as is "your sweet could taste to me like my salty does", or "your hot could feel to me like my itchy does".

I am not implying a little man, i am stating how something such as a color, or a taste is perceived by yourself, which is purely your brain. As you say, it is essentially meaningless the difference between the differences experienced by each person, as it is never experienced by anyone accept the person who experiences it. But the point i am trying to make, is that the response a brain (and therefore you) has to different tastes is purely a result of the way the brain processes the implications regarding its continuous existence, therefore it does not matter if things taste different to each person. It is not the taste itself that matters. Just as it is not the way that i view colors that matters, as yellow will always be yellow, red always red, across humanity, because that is the name we have given to those light frequencies.

 

[Modified]

I am not implying a little man, i am stating how something such as a color, or a taste is perceived by yourself, which is purely your brain.

I don't see how "your yellow could look to me like my green" can not imply something separate in your brain that is "looking" at what the rest of your brain has processed, and that could be swapped for that same separate entity in someone else's brain. What else could it mean?

 

[rocketdodger]

I remember from my cog-sci class that normal humans like the taste of MSG across the board. In fact I think we have a dedicated receptor type for it. Anyone know more about that?

 

[schlitt]

I don't see how "your yellow could look to me like my green" can not imply something separate in your brain that is "looking" at what the rest of your brain has processed, and that could be swapped for that same separate entity in someone else's brain. What else could it mean?

I am not talking a seperate entity looking at the visual image my brain creates, i am talking about the visual image itself.
Think about the color blue. You know the color when you see it, but could you ever describe it? No, the only way you could describe it would be to say "it is the color of the sky" or something similar.
Now think about the color red... same goes, you could never describe a color to someone who is blind and has never seen.
Now think about the situation; if the way that i see the sky, i know that the name for that visual image of color i am seeing is blue... but what if the way i see blue, is the way that you see red.
When asked, what is the color of the sky, we will both answer "blue".
The light is hitting my eye, going through its filters, the information is being passed to my brain for processing, and i am presented with the image into my concious mind. An image has been constructed that I identify as vision, which contains color. But what really is color? it is merely my brain presenting me with the seperated out information of the light frequencies it has recieved. Who is to say that my brain would create the same type of image as yours? Why should there be a static way that light frequencies are contructed into visual information accross humanity? It is likely there is... but yet it could vary, and we would never be able to tell.