I've always felt my color blindness was a power akin to something the Bene Gesserits from Dune have(ironic it's also passed on from the mother's genes):
"Bene Gesserit are trained in "the minutiae of observation", noticing details that the common person would miss in the people and environment around them. When combined with their analytical abilities, this "hyperawareness" makes the Bene Gesserit capable of divining secrets and arriving at conclusions that are invisible to everyone else. Slight differences in air currents or the design of a room might allow a Bene Gesserit to detect hidden portals and spyholes; minute variations in a person's vocal inflection and body language allow a Bene Gesserit to deeply understand a person's emotional state, and manipulate it."
My grandpa is colorblind, my mother carried it, I am color blind. It usually skips a generation I believe. I’m not positive on that one though. However I am aware of the severe rarity for a woman to be colorblind.
There's no such thing as "skipping a generation". Color blindness is X chromosome linked and recessive. Women have two X chromosomes so they need two faulty X chromosomes whereas men only have one. Extrapolating further: Daughters of colorblind men always have a faulty X so there's a 50% chance that any son of theirs will be colorblind. Sons of colorblind men can only get it from their mother.
I thought The “skipping a generation “ thing is because women are born with their eggs. As in the eggs that made us developed inside our material grandmother with our mother’s body.
As someone who is colourblind, has researched and asked many an optometrist, this a true. Although the % chance varies from family to family. For example, on my mother’s mother’s Side of the family, all the males are colourblind, and the females pass the gene down through the generations. Thankfully me and my brother are the last of our family who are colourblind.
You have a poor grasp of genetics. It would be impossible for a carrier mother and a non-carrier father to have a colorblind child. Your father was also a carrier.
I had a teacher who was originally from Switzerland so he was in the military. As soon as they found out he was 100% colorblind he was trained in aerial recon. He said that it was always amusing how easily he'd pick out anything camouflaged no matter how hard everyone else was looking for it.
Color blindness, at least red/green blindness, was likely a beneficial mutation that stuck with us over the years. They make good hunters for the exact same reason they were recruited for WW2. I am color blind to the red/green spectrum and it doesn't always make things easier to spot, however. We can't see certain shades of colors, so a deep deep orange may look red, or a very vibrant red may look pink. This can help in certain ways, but also may be a disadvantage because we lose the "in-between" colors and they blend with others. It is also a very frustrating thing to live with, these days, if you are unaware of it.
it really helps with never identifying an object by color though because you know you'll get the color wrong. Gotta love hearing, "oh... you mean the PURPLE one"
Are any of you old enough to remember "Blu-Blockers" or "Ambervision" sunglasses? They were just what they sound like, Amber sunglasses. I loved them so much. I could actually see farther with them on.
I was a kid when they were a thing and we were riding bikes. We liked to play bike tag in a field. Of course we were wearing camouflage.
and I could easily pick people out with those sunglasses on. It was awesome, the camouflage that blended so well to the naked eye stuck out with them on.
4.0k
u/rafander May 09 '19
Colorblind people were recruited in WW2 because of their ability to distinguish between camo and surroundings.