As you likely know, we have three types of colour-receptor cones in our eyes, red, blue and green, and this allows us to see a world rich with colour. Red cones are sensitive to long wavelengths of light, green cones to medium lengths, and blue cones to short wavelengths.
Cats, dogs, and most mammals have only two cones, blue and yellow, which means that they cannot distinguish between red, orange, and green. Their world is mostly shades of blue, yellow, and gray. Currently, I'm writing a book about cats, so I'm constantly trying to imagine what our world looks like through the eyes of my feline characters.
Birds, like chickens for example, have four types of cones, red, green, blue, and ultraviolet, so they see more colours than us. What blows me away though, is that butterflies have up to 15 types of cones. They can see all the colours we can see, but they can also see extra hues between our typical colour distinctions. I can understand seeing into the ultraviolet and infrared ranges, but the idea of seeing colours we've never seen is magical stuff. In my next life, I want to come back as a Papilio butterfly.
I like imagining how the world can look so different to different creatures. It feels like practice for imagining how humans can have such different worldviews than other humans.
How is it that we can see the world so differently than our neighbour? All the political polarization we're wrapped up in can be frightening and frustrating, but instead of thinking the other guy is an idiot or that they're evil, I think it's healthy to step back from our feelings and to try to look with curiosity at them and try to understand why they see the world as they do. For that matter, why do I see the world the way I do? What would it have taken for me to see the world the way my neighbour sees it?
And while we're speaking of polarization, did you know that some animals can see polarized light? They can perceive changes in brightness, contrast, or even special patterns based on the direction of the light waves. Normally, light vibrates in all directions, and that's what we see, but bees and birds can detect patterns in the sky because of polarized light, and it's believed that this can help them navigate. Some animals even locate water by detecting the polarized light reflecting off its surface. It's like a water beacon in the air.
Our human societies are small things in the grand scheme of the universe. Each of us is like a termite in the mound, believing that mound life is the whole world. Unlike the termite, though, we're capable of complex thought. We're capable of imagining and even exploring the universe far beyond the physical mound and the conceptual structure of mound society.
The reality in which we exist is far vaster than what we see most days. Worker and soldier termites are blind, and like them, we blind ourselves to so much of reality because we focus so intensely on social life. But if we practice seeing further, seeing deeper, seeing wider, we can free our minds from our busy little termite mound.