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by Stratoscope 2872 days ago
That's like saying "I am only interested in the one bits. They carry information, unlike the zero bits which signify nothing."

There is no fundamental difference between one bits and zero bits. This should be self-evident to any programmer. After all, you can apply a "not" function to any binary string to turn it into another string with all the bits reversed.

Light pixels and dark pixels each convey the same amount of information. Light themes vs. dark themes is not a question of which one lets photons carry more information, it's the same information either way.

The real difference is how our far-from-perfect human eyes perceive them.

1 comments

You're telling me there's no difference between light and the absent of light barring our perception of them as though light isn't a physical phenomenon with measurable effects.

For an inverted color scheme (light information on a black background) on a display where black pixels don't emit light-- the only emissions your eyes have to take in are information.

Your digital logic analogy is sanitized. If the high logic level is at 10kV your equipment is going to have a hard time.

We're talking about staring into a light source, there's a difference in total energy your eyes have to absorb.

Maybe your argument is self-evident to any theorist, but it completely ignores the physical world.

I'd also add that when reading with reflected light (such as reading on paper), your eyes are going to be taking in the same amount of light regardless of where they look in your environment because you're just reading ambient light. Completely different than staring into a light source.

Try programming while looking through an LCD directly at the sun and have it display characters by darkening pixels of direct sunlight aimed at your retinae then tell me there's no difference between a lit pixel and a dark pixel.

Hey, there's no difference between a one bit and a zero bit, here's a great computer interface idea: Transmit binary data to the user with gamma rays. The only difference is in how their far from perfect human body experiences them.