Maxwell's House 23

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Maxwell's House
Episode 23


Hosts: Leo Laporte and Ray Maxwell Topic: Evolution of Colour Vision Recorded: April 23, 2009 Video: yes Transcript Previous episode – Next episode

Topics

Humans are trichromats.
1. Short… 430 nanometers
2. Medium…530 nanometers
3. Long…560 nanometers
4. 470=blue, 520=green, 580=yellow
Most nonprimate mammals are dichromats.
A few nocturnal mammals have only one pigment.
100 photons at the center frequency cannot be distinguished from 1000 photons off center.
We tell the difference in hue do to overlapping of the response and differential coding.
The genes that causes the difference between the L and M cones are on the X chromosome. This is the female sex chromsone. XX=female, XY=male g. The pattern of S, M, and L cones is random. Luminance resolution is higher than the color resolution. The eye is similar to a Bayer pattern used in digital cameras.
Some women have four kinds of cones. What do they see?
Bees have a cone that is sensitive to UV.
Species that have the ability to tell the difference between green, yellow, and red can find ripe fruit.
April issue of Scientific American.

i. React to surroundings… Sentience …ability to feel pleasure and pain…Thermostat???

ii. Sapience…Knowledge and Judgement

iii. Know the limits of our body

iv. Self Aware…I think therefore I am…

v. Some have suggested that you have to have language

vi. Chimp and feather vs Bird in window

i. Touring test

ii. Chinese Room…John Searle

i. Life in prison

ii. Life in a virtual world

Ray pointed out in the pre-show that he needed a way to easily convert his word documents into wiki syntax.

Remember to email your questions, comments, and/or topics for upcoming shows to ray@twit.tv