When I was a kid I had the idea that a color blind individual saw something that was akin to the image projected by the old black-and-white television in my parents bedroom. Based upon what we learned in class it seems that this may not be the case. F or one thing what a color blind individual may see depends on which photopigment or pigments they are lacking. It has been made clear that a color blind person sees the world in a way that is different from anyone having all three color pigments. My que stion is this: Is there anyway (short of inducing permanent eye-damage) in which a person with color vision can experience was a color-blind person sees?

Depends on what form of color blindness one is talking about (there are lots of kinds). The best understood involve absence of one or more of the cone pigments. Complete absence of the cone pigments presumably gives sensations comparable to what you get at night when you are using only rods. One can also to some degree selectively bleach a cone pigment, which gives some idea of what missing one would be like. Color blindness can also result from more centrally located brain lesions. Oliver Sachs in An Anthropologist From Mars describes his experiences with a person having such a lesion. Its well worth reading. No, its apparently not like black and white television. PG