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Posted by inigyou 6 days ago

Olo (Color)(en.wikipedia.org)
459 points | 84 comments
GolfPopper 18 hours ago|
It is possible to see something close (how close I don't know) by saturating the S & M cones instead of avoiding them. Wikipedia refers to these as 'chimerical colors':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_color#Chimerical_co...

Georgelemental 18 hours ago|
Demonstration of this: https://dynomight.net/colors/ (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44594808)
tgv 23 minutes ago|||
I'm color blind. I do see a somewhat different, brighter color, but it isn't particularly different from normal colors. That's just me (and my fellow aberrants)?
yboris 17 hours ago||||
Love this - references one of my favorite ever optical experiences Eclipse of Titan

https://www.skytopia.com/project/illusion/ipage-et.html

deIeted 3 hours ago||
BTW olo was not discovered in 2025

In ~2016 on the chan someone posted a completely unhinged post about this "bleen" "grue" color that nobody could see. it's probably lost to the ages now, but I remember it.

vanderZwan 3 hours ago||
Are you sure that wasn't referencing "grue" from this philosophical thought experiment? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_riddle_of_induction
MisterTea 13 hours ago||||
The fun part is the big red dot on the green background animation. Even before clicking it, as my eyes dart across it, small dark blue/black electric arc like shapes manifest all around the edges of the circle either reaching to the edge of the square or curving back to the circle like solar flares. I am red-green colorblind too.
EvanAnderson 5 hours ago||||
These demos really drive home the chemical / biological part of visual perception to me. As I perceive these strange new colors I can almost feel the chemical processes occurring in my cones.
formerly_proven 13 hours ago||||
This is heroin for the eyes. Once the hit is over you want to take another one and if you don't it'll take ten minutes or so until the "real" world won't feel like a bleached sepia picture any more.
eru 6 hours ago|||
I saw the blue rim, but I didn't notice much effect on how the real world looked like after. But then, I'm red-green colourblind.
deIeted 3 hours ago|||
tbf it's more like methylamine + P2P meth for the eyes
saidnooneever 3 hours ago||||
weird shit that happen kinda happen to me a lot. i felt always that maybe my brain was malfunctioning.

i still kinda do, because it just happen at random when i am outside. sometimes, usually in bright morning light, sunny morning. no i dont look at the sun, yes mostly its visible looking at the blue of the sky.

last time i had it while in 1 on 1 with my manager. it took a lot of struggle not to try and rub my eye or tell her i was seeing this weird rainbow snake floating around.

overloaded cones, hopefully thats not some indication of something bad but just 'tired eyes'.

elliottkember 1 hour ago|||
Is it perhaps a scintillating scotoma? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma
NetOpWibby 3 hours ago|||
yer a wizard
reoKaneshiro 14 hours ago||||
Wow, mind /eye blowing! Very insightful, thank you!
rashkov 16 hours ago||||
wow, highly recommended
toxik 17 hours ago||||
This was very interesting, thank you for the link.
pwillia7 15 hours ago|||
incredible
red_admiral 8 minutes ago||
Someone is trying to recreate "the seven colors of the earthly rainbow and the three extra colors you only get in Heaven" (from Scott Alexander's UNSONG).
antics 13 hours ago||
If you are interested in "imaginary" colors, the gamut is actually well-specified, and (I hope it is appropriate to comment) that I made a visualization where you can drag a selection thumb over the gamut to see the "simulated" version of that color. Also include it is a 12-step contrast-sensitive color palette generator for said imaginary colors, which would allow you to make websites and (say) vscode themes using entirely imaginary colors! https://docs.moment.dev/d/hausdorff/2zmqjlmldchela29xvbzlbki...
drayfield 19 hours ago||
Is it too late to rename it to Octarine?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/octarine

phikappa 18 hours ago||
In my headcanon octarine is a colour between orange and deep purple. Sometimes it has a hazy blackish halo.
riffraff 13 hours ago|||
I think it's described as a "greenish purple" in some of the books.
indrora 18 hours ago|||
I've always taken it to be that the color is unique to the situation/viewer -- a sort of pearlescent void-color that can't be described in any known language, but which just Is. More a physical phenomenon than an actual color, but distinctly hued somehow.
dejobaan 17 hours ago||
I always thought it was something like https://www.moodlight.org/ (set to 60 colors/second) or https://flashing-colors.com/ (set to 100 colors/second).

Note that those are possibly photosensitive epilepsy risks if you turn them up to 60/100.

ChrisMarshallNY 18 hours ago|||
+1 for the Sir Terry reference.

I suspect many animals experience color quite differently, including seeing infrared/ultraviolet, etc.

tiagod 17 hours ago||
No suspicion needed, that's a very well studied fact.
ameliaquining 10 hours ago|||
I thought of "The Colour Out of Space".
Razengan 17 hours ago||
My thoughts as soon as I saw the title :)
hdz 17 hours ago||
The closest approximation to Olo colored paint you can buy is also by the company that makes some of the blackest black paint. I haven't used it personally. https://culturehustle.com/collections/paint/products/yolo-ne...
c22 15 hours ago||
They also make the orangiest orange paint, the yellowest yellow, the pinkest pink, etc. At a certain point I have to wonder how much these are accurate descriptors of the paint colors vs arbitrary made up marketing nonsense.
jhiesey 16 hours ago|||
Note that there has been controversy for the last few years around Culture Hustle not fulfilling orders and doing other sketchy things. Just a heads up.
rebeccajae 12 hours ago|||
I had ordered something from them and it took me initiating a chargeback for them to ship anything at all. The product that arrived was of terrible quality, and their customer support email is completely useless as well, any email gets a canned "your email is very important to us!" style response. My bank denied my second chargeback request because they had technically shipped something.
zimpenfish 1 hour ago|||
I've seen those complaints going around but, to add a picoGladwell of data, I've not had any problems with fulfilling orders or anything like that.
22039dj9j3d 13 hours ago|||
There is no "olo-colored" anything; that's the whole point. This is bordering on a scam.
kridsdale1 15 hours ago|||
Obligatory “Fuck Anish Kapoor”

https://www.reddit.com/r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR/comments/1dxlt6...

kiddico 16 hours ago||
Lol $11280.99 now marked down to $33.99!
tclancy 8 hours ago||
Really enjoyed this article about it https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/03/what-would-it-...
vismit2000 3 hours ago|
https://archive.ph/zXZ9d
jen729w 8 hours ago||
Aha! I was trying to figure out the colour of the E5/H5 Shinkansen that are used on the Tokyo-Morioka-Aomori (Hayabusa/Yamabiko) line. This is it.

https://kagi.com/images?q=e5+h5+shinkansen&r=au&sh=fWcD0dVpC...

jeremyjh 14 hours ago||
Reminds me a bit of a Greg Egan story from Instantiation called Seventh Sight. Kids with artificial eyes hack them to see colors and spectrum not perceptible by humans.
kveykva 18 hours ago||
This reads like an SCP article
Luc 18 hours ago|
Ah, thank you. Couldn’t put my finger on it.
pixelatedindex 14 hours ago|
I wonder why if this is the reason for the icon color of the game Olo. The left half of the icon background looks so similar.

https://www.eurogamer.net/olo-review

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