[daedrdev]

Some animals have more cone types than humans, especially various birds, so would probably see a violet sky.

We don't have this because common ancestor for all mammals lost all cones but one, perhaps due to being nocturnal, and a second was re-evolved as mammals became more dominant (after dinosaur extension). A third cone was evolved in primates due to a gene duplication that gave us our green cone

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004269890...

[reactordev]

maybe in 100M years we'll get a 4th cone or rod. Probably from nuclear mutation...

[jaggederest]

We already have mutations, generally in women, for tetrachromaticism, who usually have male relatives with severe or moderate color blindness, in which the X chromosome encodes a different green cone. So they end up seeing red, strange-green, green, and blue, where strange-green is somewhere closer to red than green.

Only a few on record but they tend to have absolutely insane color matching and color perception. One of note worked in the fashion industry and could match fabrics perfectly even in varying lighting (e.g. working under fluorescent but able to match colors that would stay matched in halogen/stage lighting)

[reactordev]

I have that already ;) it actually looks like muddy puke green than green. However, green stop lights look more “white” than green.

Some reds look like brown. I hate reds. I’m not sure about the Pantone-like color matching but I definitely see different colors than most people. To the point where my flight license is restricted.

Dichromatic but not trichromatic.

[jaggederest]

Not sure if you'll see this but you should check color perception with any female relatives, they're much more likely than average to be tetrachromats!

[codesnik]

how does dichromatism restricts flight license? no instrumental flights? no night flights? something about perceiving warning lights on some panels?

[reactordev]

All three

[int_19h]

There's some evidence that tetrachromacy already exists in a few humans. If so we have the gene already. But why would it spread?

[lesostep]

fringe theory just for a bit of fun: since screen use 3 colors diodes, maybe people with tetrachromacy would be less addicted to screens, making them both more grounded in real life and marginally more successful, leading to them having more children?

I have no idea how to test it. But in my heart I know that screens with RG, GB or RB color models would suck enough that any screen addiction would be cured instantly.

[reactordev]

I wouldn’t be so sure, for a decade all we had was G and we used more and more of it until we died of dysentery outside Eagle River.

[fragmede]

You were supposed to ford the river!

[reactordev]

You know our supplies were:

1 axle.

1 wheel.

1 bundle.

100 boxes of ammo.

10,000lbs of bear meat.

2lbs of squirrel meat.

We sank like a rock.

[tim333]

They need special screens with four colors and the internet updated to make it more interesting for the tetrachromatic.

[daedrdev]

this is true of many human mutations with the development of medical care, its not like we face evolutionary pressure for many things

[mr_toad]

> maybe in 100M years we'll get a 4th cone or rod. Probably from nuclear mutation...

There’s a Greg Egan short story (I think it’s ‘Seventh Sight’) where a bunch of formerly blind kids with cybernetic eyes hack the receptors to respond to wavelengths other than the traditional RGB. So perhaps it wont take millions of years.