black

[The Sum of Awe]

What is black? Is it the color of nothing or the absolute absence of color? It's very interesting to contemplate the notions of nothingness and black, because they are how the mind captures the lack of information. In some ways black is a thing, but at the same time it's the lack of things. It's a construction made of void.

A person blind from birth sees nothing. What is this nothing? Is it colored black, or not even that?

Why is space transparent, but then again in the great beyond there is the color black? Perhaps the black "ceiling" of space is the 'nothingness' (as many imagine) that is "outside" of space, instead of space itself?

Why is it that the way the universe turned out to be, that the lack of light is black and not white instead?

If the universe is God, is the vast amount of black that outweighs light in our universe the evidence that God's soul is empty?

 

[Revoltingest]

Black isn't a color because no wavelength range is associated with it.
Black is a color because paint stores call it one.

 

[The Hammer]

What is black? Is it the color of nothing or the absolute absence of color? It's very interesting to contemplate the notions of nothingness and black, because they are how the mind captures the lack of information. In some ways black is a thing, but at the same time it's the lack of things. It's a construction made of void.

A person blind from birth sees nothing. What is this nothing? Is it colored black, or not even that?

Why is space transparent, but then again in the great beyond there is the color black? Perhaps the black "ceiling" of space is the 'nothingness' (as many imagine) that is "outside" of space, instead of space itself?

Why is it that the way the universe turned out to be, that the lack of light is black and not white instead?

If the universe is God, is the vast amount of black that outweighs light in our universe the evidence that God's soul is empty?

Black is the absence of light, so blind people "see" black if you want to get technical. The universe doesn't have the absence of light be white, because white is the reflection of all light, where black is the absorption of all light.

The large vast black void of space does not prove that god's soul is empty, it proves that god's soul absorbs and contains all.

 

[columbus]

Black is one of those curious concepts where people objectify an abstraction. It doesn't exist, it is the lack of perceivable radiation. But it is such a pervasive and strong illusion that we talk about it as if it did exist.

There are lots of others. Cold, randomness, horizons, free will, these are all us describing the limits of our perceptions.

Not actual things that exist.

Tom

 

[Sunstone]

For an artist, black is sometimes called the presence of all color, while white is sometimes called the absence of all color.

 

[Skwim]

First of all, color is the the property of an object that produces sensations in the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits a specific wave length(s) of the visible spectrum. White, because it is a reflection or emission of light all wave lengths, does not qualify as a color.

When a surface absorbs all wave lengths of the visible spectrum we call its appearance "black." So, lacking any reflected portion of the visible spectrum, technically black doesn't qualify as a color. The same applies when our eyes fail to sense any portion of the visible spectrum whatsoever, e.g. when we look at a starless sky at night, are enclosed in a very dark closet, or wear a light blocking mask.

Of course, the Binney & Smith company, which makes Crayola crayons, couldn't care less about the above and make both white (color #128) and black (color #10) crayons.

 

[Wirey]

Black is next to red, and the chequers only move diagonally.

 

[Revoltingest]

For an artist, black is sometimes called the presence of all color, while white is sometimes called the absence of all color.

Not all artists are that dumb. (It's the reverse of the above.)

But speaking of dumb thougths about "black"....
I just heard on NPR someone refer to an "African American American".
He referred to a black Americanistanian, but "African American" now refers to all black folk, even when they're not American at all.

 

[psychoslice]

Black and white is of the same coin, just difference in their degree, black absorbs all colours and white reflects all colours.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Black is the infinite mystery. It is the unfathomable and the limitless. It is all-potential.

 

[Nietzsche]

What is black? Is it the color of nothing or the absolute absence of color? It's very interesting to contemplate the notions of nothingness and black, because they are how the mind captures the lack of information. In some ways black is a thing, but at the same time it's the lack of things. It's a construction made of void.

A person blind from birth sees nothing. What is this nothing? Is it colored black, or not even that?

Why is space transparent, but then again in the great beyond there is the color black? Perhaps the black "ceiling" of space is the 'nothingness' (as many imagine) that is "outside" of space, instead of space itself?

Why is it that the way the universe turned out to be, that the lack of light is black and not white instead?

If the universe is God, is the vast amount of black that outweighs light in our universe the evidence that God's soul is empty?

...

You do know that there are wavelengths of light we simply can't see, right?

 

[Nietzsche]

Black is the infinite mystery. It is the unfathomable and the limitless. It is all-potential.

While I'm pretty sure you're referring to a more spiritual or such notion here, I feel the need to be anal;

That, by definition, cannot be true. At least, the 'all-potential' part. For lack of a better term 'blackest black' does not release any energy, and 'blackest black' here basically means black hole. Anything that enters the event horizon is gone. Gone, for all intents & purposes, forever. While we may discover in the future that the energy & mass it's taking in does end up somewhere right now it just seems to continuously compress in on itself. All wavelengths of light, all known forms of energy & matter, cannot escape the pull of a black hole once reaching the EH. People too often think of a Black Hole as a box or something, that's just "holding" what it has taken in.

As far as we can tell, that isn't true. There are two(well more than two, but these are the two I am most familiar with) ;

One. Somewhere there is another 'hole' in space-time, the 'exit point' of a black hole(a white-hole, because science desperately needs to invest in a thesaurus) where all the matter & energy its taken in is spewed. It could be in our universe, it could be in our universe but in the past(from our current point of reference), in our universe but in the future(again from our point of reference), in another universe, ect. The most interesting of these, I think, is the past one. It's leaving the black hole before it entered it. I just love the idea of our notion of time being bent over a table and ****ed in the ***. Just makes me happy.

Two. This is the scary one. It's being destroyed. As in, violating the most important physical law. Here's the thing about that though- There is a work-around for that. You can destroy matter/energy...if you do it retroactively. As in, if a black hole is genuinely destroying matter & energy, if you remove the particles that made it up during the Big Bang...it's no longer a problem. The matter isn't being destroyed at that point, it never existed. And better yet, no one and nothing in the universe would or even could know.

 

[Bobbyh]

"Black" is a biological response. It's an interpretation of acknowledging a relatively low level of light.

So we could cover both, "what is light?" and "what is biology?, specifically neural and visual characteristics", to answer fairly accurately.

 

[Tumah]

Black isn't emptiness. Black is the color of something that can't be perceived. Subjectively it is the color of nothing, but objectively it is the color of everything. [Outer-]Space contains everything, so it is black. But we can't perceive everything, so for us it is black.

Light is our ability to perceive. Only with it can we see and understand. When that light is removed, our vision is subjectively clouded, black. Not because the external environment changed, but because we've lost our ability to perceive.
Black is unity. When everything is black everything is the same.
Light divides. With light, I can see distinct objects.

That is why we perceive everything together as being black. Black is beyond our ability to perceive. Black is the unknown. And G-d is the Unknowable.

 

[dust1n]