Oh, the Huemanity
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 570 Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For as long as humans have existed, we've been obsessed with color. Everything from the color of your clothes to the brightly illuminated pixels on your screen is an attempt to recreate—and enhance—the vibrant hues found in the natural world. In fact, the pursuit of pretty colors (and how we understand them) can be seen as a driving force behind some of the biggest technological advancements and societal shifts in human history.
This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED senior correspondent Adam Rogers about his new book Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern and the wild ways color affects our brains.
Show Notes:
You can find Adam’s book, Full Spectrum, here. Read an excerpt from Adam’s book about how Pixar uses color to hack your brain on WIRED. Read Adam’s story about the science of The Dress here. Also check out Proof, Adam’s book about the science of booze. Read Lauren’s story about the internet and memories.
Recommendations:
Adam recommends the show Beforeigners on HBO Max. Lauren recommends fly fishing. Mike recommends the memoir Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls by Nina Renata Aron.
Adam Rogers can be found on Twitter @jetjocko. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:01.0 | Mike. |
| 0:02.0 | Lauren, do you remember the dress, the one that was either blue and black or white and gold? |
| 0:07.0 | Who could forget the dress? |
| 0:10.0 | And I think, I think I saw it as blue and black. |
| 0:13.0 | What about you? |
| 0:14.0 | I saw it as white and gold. |
| 0:16.0 | What? |
| 0:17.0 | Yeah, I know. |
| 0:18.0 | Well, you know what? |
| 0:19.0 | It was one of the most popular articles in Wired's history and probably one of the most indelible moments in internet history. |
| 0:24.2 | And it is now spawned, partially spawned, a book that is entirely about color that is written by today's guest. |
| 0:31.2 | So let's talk about it. |
| 0:42.9 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Colori, a senior editor at Wired. |
| 0:47.5 | And I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. We are also joined today by Wired Senior Correspondent, Adam, welcome back to the show. Thank you. I'm always glad to be here with fellow |
| 0:53.0 | seniors. That's us. |
| 0:56.8 | Last time we had you on was during the Mars mission to talk about the red planet. Today we're |
| 1:01.6 | just going to talk about red and blue and green and yellow and white and black and all the other |
| 1:05.4 | things. We are talking about color because Adam, our guest, you just published a book called Full Spectrum, |
| 1:12.6 | How the Science of Color Made Us Modern. |
| 1:15.6 | It's about how we perceive color in the world around us and how that perception has led to important |
| 1:20.6 | societal shifts in human history. |
... |
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