# The colors of darkness



## kunox (Sep 14, 2018)

i was just curious. would it be odd to have outer space or darkness be a different color. it will be necessary to my work but it may confuse people. I mean each multiverse has it's own color but how does someone explain that in the outset of a novel.


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## Theglasshouse (Sep 14, 2018)

If they entered an alternate dimension. Like in Roger Zelazny's work the great book of amber. Which is a work of fantasy. The moon I remember he said was bluish. But that was after he entered a door where he could not return to the normal world if memory serves me correctly.


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## Bayview (Sep 14, 2018)

Darkness is the absence of light. If something appears black to the human eye, that's because the surface has absorbed all the light humans can see, leaving nothing on the visible spectrum to be reflected back to our eyeballs. If there was a colour, that would mean there was light, which would mean there wasn't absolute darkness.

Same with space. It's the absence of light that makes space black.

I'm not sure this is something that could be easily changed.

(Like, "cold" isn't its own thing; it's just an absence of heat. We may talk about cold spreading, just as we talk about darkness falling, but neither term really works in a non-figurative sense. We wouldn't say "what if cold was a different temperature" so we can't really say "what if darkness was a different colour".)


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## kunox (Sep 14, 2018)

what I was trying to do is have the fundamental properties of each reality be different. thus a different color of dark matter. so a different color of absence{or darkness} to denote that reality or whatever makes it up is different. that's a hard note to start a book on though. Will be considering this. thank you both for the opinions.


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## Terry D (Sep 14, 2018)

Space is not dark. In fact, space is full of light from billions of stars all the time. If you are talking about the background blackness between stars, that's just a limitation of the human eye. There are still many wavelengths of light there that we simply cannot see.


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## kunox (Sep 14, 2018)

This is true. Thank you.


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## moderan (Sep 14, 2018)

It's fecking symbolism.  Don't explain it, just portray the atmosphere as fitting for each color.


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## K.S. Crooks (Sep 14, 2018)

You could say it's a young universe and the higher residual energy from their big bang gives their universe a certain shade. What if the fabric of Space-Time was plaid.


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## kunox (Sep 14, 2018)

hipster multiverse... that's what it would be.


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## Underd0g (Sep 14, 2018)

Bayview said:


> Darkness is the absence of light. If something appears black to the human eye, that's because the surface has absorbed all the light humans can see, leaving nothing on the visible spectrum to be reflected back to our eyeballs. If there was a colour, that would mean there was light, which would mean there wasn't absolute darkness.
> 
> Same with space. It's the absence of light that makes space black.
> 
> I'm not sure this is something that could be easily changed.



Actually black is simply an interpretation of the brain because we are oxygen based life forms. 
Alien species that can absorb more methane than humans would have brains that would interpret darkness as an orange hue.

Easy peasy

(But they would stink) (According to our sensibilities.)


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## moderan (Sep 15, 2018)

kunox said:


> hipster multiverse... that's what it would be.



Jerry Cornelius was there in the 60s.


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## Bayview (Sep 15, 2018)

Underd0g said:


> Actually black is simply an interpretation of the brain because we are oxygen based life forms.
> Alien species that can absorb more methane than humans would have brains that would interpret darkness as an orange hue.
> 
> Easy peasy
> ...



Can you explain this? I agree that our perception of darkness is based on our eye-brain interpretations, but I don't get the connection to oxygen and menthane. Also, we're traditionally classed as carbon-based lifeforms, not oxygen-based... do you mean oxygen-_breathing_​ lifeforms, or...?


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## Underd0g (Sep 15, 2018)

Bayview said:


> Can you explain this? I agree that our perception of darkness is based on our eye-brain interpretations, but I don't get the connection to oxygen and menthane. Also, we're traditionally classed as carbon-based lifeforms, not oxygen-based... do you mean oxygen-_breathing_​ lifeforms, or...?



Lol, sure I'll explain myself.

I'm simply explaining that in science fiction, you can use just about any plausible solution to make people doubt themselves and their perceptions.
Isn't that the whole purpose of fiction? To come up with a reason to fool themselves as a form of entertainment?
How would you know _how_ your brain would interpret stimuli if you were exposed to a planet where you were exposed to constant nitrogen deprivation?
Or the levels of lead on plant life were off the charts. You know, the kind of plants that can communicate with sign language. And humans actually touched these plants without knowing the effects.


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## Bayview (Sep 15, 2018)

Underd0g said:


> Lol, sure I'll explain myself.
> 
> I'm simply explaining that in science fiction, you can use just about any plausible solution to make people doubt themselves and their perceptions.
> Isn't that the whole purpose of fiction? To come up with a reason to fool themselves as a form of entertainment?



I mostly agree, but... I stumble on your interpretation of "plausible". Now that I understand your earlier post was just an attempt at baffle-with-bullshit, I understand what you mean, but when I first read it, I thought you were off your rocker, and I totally wouldn't have had any faith in the concepts you were presenting if I'd read them in a novel. So, yes, I think we can expect readers to go along with our ideas as long as our ideas are plausible, but... they have to be plausible!


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## kunox (Sep 15, 2018)

that makes since.... will be considering.


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## Underd0g (Sep 15, 2018)

Bayview said:


> I mostly agree, but... I stumble on your interpretation of "plausible". Now that I understand your earlier post was just an attempt at baffle-with-bullshit, I understand what you mean, but when I first read it, I thought you were off your rocker, and I totally wouldn't have had any faith in the concepts you were presenting if I'd read them in a novel. So, yes, I think we can expect readers to go along with our ideas as long as our ideas are plausible, but... they have to be plausible!



My philosophy about when people ask for advice or ideas on this site is akin to comedy improv.
They are encouraged to "say yes" to every situation as if it's ALL plausible. This keeps the storyline going without hitches.

Then the person asking for advice can adapt what they hear from those that post on the thread and take away what they want.

Improv, when you think about it is totally implausible but fun nonetheless.


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## Ralph Rotten (Sep 15, 2018)

"Same with space. It's the absence of light that makes space black."

Actually there is a lot of light in space, coming at us from every direction.
But space is mostly empty so there is nothing for it to reflect off of.
The light we see is actually photons bouncing off of objects or air.


Also Kunox, multiverse is the whole potato, all of the universes. Do you mean each universe is different color? Or is your character jumping from one dimension to another?


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## kunox (Sep 16, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> "Same with space. It's the absence of light that makes space black."
> 
> Actually there is a lot of light in space, coming at us from every direction.
> But space is mostly empty so there is nothing for it to reflect off of.
> ...




they do a lot of that in my books. jump one dimension to another. so yes. I do mean each multiverse is a different color because there are several of those... not just universes in the books. think of each kind of like a different simulation but with it really being real.


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## Ralph Rotten (Sep 16, 2018)

But a multiverse is our universe (all 99,000,000,000,000,000,000 galaxies) as well as all alternate universes. The farther you travel outwards from our version, the more it changes.


My take on dimensions has always been that the 4th dimension is essentially time, but in a 1st dimensional format; it is a single thread where you can only travel forward or backwards.
The 5th dimension was a popular band in the 70's.
No really, the 5th dimension is our reality/universe, as well as a all alternate versions (but laid out in a flat 2nd dimensional format)
And the 6th dimension would be the 5th dimension sandwiched in between all of the alternate universes (in a 3rd dimensional format.)








(this is the part where Mod tells me how wrong I am with my theory, even though neither of us can prove our assertions due to humanity's limited science.) :saturn:


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## kunox (Sep 16, 2018)

but what would you call it if all that was ripped into four distinct things.... each being made of a different kind of {quantum energy/quantum stuff} distinct from each other with different properties in themselves.


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## Ralph Rotten (Sep 16, 2018)

Witch-doctery.

But if you wanted to go there, you could theorize that each multiverse was based on a different core element.
See, our universe, and everything in it was built from nothing more than hydrogen and gravity. 
So you could theorize that other multiverses are based on other base elements than hydrogen.
But they'd need to be the most basic of elements. Hydrogen is about as basic an element as you can get:








I guess helium would be the next simplest atom:


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## kunox (Sep 16, 2018)

I am talking smaller than that. like string theory level stuff.


P.s. I could and possibly do...... lol..... we will see.


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## Underd0g (Sep 16, 2018)

Nah, nah, nah; you're all wrong, it's all in how your brain interprets color.
Color is an indeterminable quantity, which is to say, it doesn't exist.

Check this out, my favorite optical illusion. A and B are the same color and shade:


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## kunox (Sep 16, 2018)

thats a good point.... will consider.


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## Jack of all trades (Sep 16, 2018)

kunox said:


> i was just curious. would it be odd to have outer space or darkness be a different color. it will be necessary to my work but it may confuse people. I mean each multiverse has it's own color but how does someone explain that in the outset of a novel.



We see based on photons being reflected into our eyes. When only those moving at the red wavelength come at us, we see red. Other wavelengths are interpreted as other colors. And there's ultraviolet and infrared, too, which humans don't see. 

When all the colors, or just the three primary colors, are reflected at us, we see white. When nothing is reflected, we see black. So black is just the absence of photons coming at us.

Space may be full of light, but the backness is where the light is going in some direction other than toward our eyes. 

[Note : This has to do with noticing photons and what wavelength they are traveling at, and has nothing to do with protons, electrons, neutrons, atoms, gravity, molecules, or whether we are limited by not seeing outside of the visible light spectrum.]

Can space be some other color in another dimension or universe? Hmmm. That wouldn't work for me. But there's stuff that other members like that's been posted that didn't work for in a scientific sense, so ... I guess if it's written well, some folks will like it. But there will be others who won't like reading something that doesn't fit with science as we know and understand it.


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## kunox (Sep 16, 2018)

understood... ty my friend.


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## midnightpoet (Sep 16, 2018)

There have been many writers who have tested the willing suspension of disbelief, many quite successful.  As understand it, at least be consistent within the story.  Good luck.


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## Sir-KP (Sep 16, 2018)

kunox said:


> i was just curious. would it be odd to have outer space or darkness be a different color. it will be necessary to my work but it may confuse people. I mean each multiverse has it's own color but how does someone explain that in the outset of a novel.



If each multiverse has its own color, then you can't explain it to anyone. We are all 'color blind' outside the colors we know of. 

Lack of light is darkness. Ambience may contribute the color of that space. So if you have a planet filled with blue glowing mushrooms but lack of sun, then the ambience would be blue and the planet would be dark.


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## Kyle R (Sep 17, 2018)

kunox said:


> i was just curious. would it be odd to have outer space or darkness be a different color. it will be necessary to my work but it may confuse people. I mean each multiverse has it's own color but how does someone explain that in the outset of a novel.



Victoria Schwab's _A Darker Shade of Magic_ (Genre: Fantasy) involves four parallel-dimension versions of London, each with a different color. One of the protagonists uses magic to travel back and forth between the different worlds.

It's not exactly the same scenario as yours, but it's in the same "different color for each reality" vein. Giving it a read might give you some ideas on how to handle it.

Then there's the obvious question: are you writing Fantasy, or Science Fiction?

If it's Fantasy, pretty much anything goes, and your readers will naturally be ready to accept strange or altered realities.

If it's Science Fiction, then you'll want to put more effort into justifying the color changes using real-world science.

As the saying goes: _pick your poison_. :encouragement:


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## kunox (Sep 17, 2018)

the book is slipstream... so a little bit of both scifi and fantasy.


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## moderan (Sep 17, 2018)

Do explain please. I don't see how this is slipstream at all, especially according to the original conception of the subgenre, which essay is preserved within the hyperlink.


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## kunox (Sep 17, 2018)

As a matter of fact there is magic of a sorts within the world but because it's ripped apart from the normal world it exist in it's own right.  In a different multiverse with it's own rules. So you can fling a spell in that other universe.... It also may reclassify truly as scifi when I'm done though.  The four multiverse has a universe bases off science. One of magic and two others.

quote


*Slipstream is a kind of fantastic or non-realisticfiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. The term was coined by cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling in an article originally published in SF Eye #5, in July 1989.

**unqoute*


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## moderan (Sep 18, 2018)

The essay in which Sterling introduced the concept is in my post. You've explained exactly nothing. Don't bother.


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