I had the cataract replaced in my right eye recently. A simple 10 minute procedure, with patients lined up and wheeled in and out of the operating room: an optical assembly line. That day my right eye was very light sensitive and my vision was blurry, but I started to notice something else as the blurriness started to clear.
Everything I saw in my right eye was very blue-ish, as if the lighting was coming from a bad fluorescent light. Left eye was a nice sepia-toned view of the world, right eye bright and blue. My wife's pants are green with the left eye and grey with the right.
The next day during my follow up appointment, I asked my ophthalmologist when the blue-ness would dissipate. 'Oh no', he said, 'now you're seeing things the way they actually are'.
He explained that over time, the lenses in the eye start to deteriorate and everything gets tinged with yellow, as is the case with my left eye. 'Your right eye is now seeing things the way a 5 year old does'. I'm told that over time, my brain will adjust to the new normal, and when I get the other eye done (soon) I won't know the difference, I suppose because I won't have a previous reference.
He told me of an artist that had cataract surgery and was despondent because all his paintings looked completely different. 'They're all shite' he said. That must be a tough row to hoe: working with perceived colours in such a detailed and personal way and then have the ground, or colour palate, pulled out from under you.
This is not an unknown result. My ophthalmologist's explanation is confirmed: 'Cataracts significantly reduce a person’s ‘blue light’ perception. This happens as cataracts have blue light (short wave length light) blocking effect. Given that cataract is a slowly progressive disease, human mind does not perceive the alteration of color and slowly adapts to reduced blue color perception. Hence, after surgery, some patients see ‘blue’ with the eye, as compared to the other non-operated eye. This is normal. The ability to perceive colors in their correct form returns to normalcy within a few weeks ..'(1)
This brings a lot of things to mind: Do I now re-visit art galleries and look at the paintings with my new 5-year old eyes. What colour did that painter, with his 50 year old eyes, think he was painting, and am I seeing the same? And, what is blue?
I recall a discussion about vision and perception from my philosophy class. What colour is and is not is a hot topic in the Representative Realism niche of philosophy. '... the color of something is determined by the physical circumstances, the object, and the unique type of sensory mechanism of the perceiver.'
Locke believed that objects have '... a disposition to cause perceived colors'. Berkeley's view is that colour is a mental property. Pluralism sidesteps the issue: '... Norm and Norma perceive different colors - and both are right.'(2)
I'm not sure where this leaves me. I really like the left eye view; yellow, sepia-toned, like an old faded photograph, but pretty soon I'll be fully on board with my new vision. It might be time to up the version number to Bob 5.0.
The world will be the same, but my perception of it will have changed. Or maybe my perception is what the world is. I'll go with the pluralism approach: Both Bob 4.0 and Bob 5.0 perceive different colours - and both are right.
1. https://www.dragarwal.com/blog/all-about-cataract/seeing-a-lot-more-blue-after-the-cataract-surgery-information-on-colour-perception-changes-after-a-cataract-surgery/
2. Introduction to Philosophy. Jack S. Crumley II, 2016. Broadview Press. pp 122-123
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