The Human Mind

The thing about the human mind is that each one is completely unique, and you really only ever get to be in yours. You'll never get to know what it's like to think through someone else's mind, because you can't simultaneously be aware of your thoughts and someone else's. Even if you could jump into a different brain, as soon as you got there, you'd forget whatever your brain was thinking; you'd be them. So it's a one-at-a-time sort of deal. Whatever mind you have, it's yours, and that's all you got.

Fair enough. But if that's the case, how do we know what other people experience? Communication, of course. If I saw someone, did something, or felt some way, I could tell you about it. I could speak, write, play charades; whatever it took to convey my message.

But what if, all this time, we haven't really been communicating properly. Is it possible that, somehow, there is an inherent miscommunication owing to the fact that we can only experience one mind at a time?

Let us consider. View, if you would, the following image:



It's an apple. At least, that is what we have all agreed to call it. More importantly, however, it is a red apple.

Only, I wonder, is it possible that this is not really the case for everyone? You see, first, you look at the apple. You notice its color. As do I. You have seen this color before: stop signs, lobsters, roses - they share this color. And we both call it red.

Could it be, though, that I do not see what you see? Might I see apples, stop signs, lobsters, and roses differently? Suppose my mind functioned such that they appeared like this:

That is not what you are used to seeing. Perhaps that is how I see those things. But here is the key: I call that red. The stop sign above; I call it's color red.

You see, might it not be that we all perceive the world differently, but consistently so? If every time I see something of the same color I call it by the same name, I am consistent. So, if all of my stop signs are that color, which I pronounce "red," and all of yours are the color of the apple, which you pronounce "red," then we will both go around, looking at the same objects, them seeing them differently but calling them the same thing.

Would we ever know? Of course not. When we came to a stoplight, suppose the topmost light was lit. For convenience, here is a reference:



Again, the topmost light is lit. I stop my car, you stop yours. We both know that red means stop. Only, you see that "red" in a particular shade, but I don't see it that way. I see this:



I still call the top light "red" (it means stop) and the bottom light "green" (it means go). But I don't actually see it that way. My entire world could be color shifted, and you wouldn't know it.

All of our worlds may be shifted. We all might (dare I say, we all do) see things in a "different light;" various people observe the same situation and perceive it many different ways. Perhaps we all go through life with mixed up colors, with different perspectives and visions of the world.

But that's the wonderful thing about the human mind. Each one is completely unique. Do I see red where you see green? I have no idea. That's the other thing about the human mind. You only ever get to be in yours.