I sit in a black and white room watching an achromatic television.
Rectangular walls trap me, but I’ve never risked a valid stealthy getaway.
I read about color, tracing pathways chosen by neurons when they flash.
Trading topics add to the larger picture, grinding edges, and distilling layers.
They call me an expert in this domain, a designation offering reassurance.
I should forage for an ending, but loops demand that I relearn.
A vision arrives, prowling by accident, unlike any entity I’ve ever seen.
I know it’s an apple, but its hues have me thoroughly hypnotized.
Understanding red left me whole, witnessing it has me split and bloody.
Taste arrives first, a crisp bite on my arid tongue, detonating honey.
Smell deserts me in the wake of swirling crimson initiating incomplete waves.
It settles behind both my eyes, a craving satiated to inexplicable depths.
I should be the one losing my mind, instead, it’s everyone else.
You’re trying to capture what can’t be contained, cursing at liminal limitations.
If there were only one way to things, would we be here?
Flipping it upside down by force, focusing on what you can’t fathom.
Comprehending sans living or kicking every wary bit into the ample cosmos.
Go ahead and take it back, I’ll sit here in bemused bafflement.

Author’s Notes:

Mary’s room was a thought experiment proposed by Frank Jackson in 1982.

“Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specialises in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and uses terms like 'red', 'blue', and so on...What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a colour television monitor? Will she learn anything or not?”

A malfunction lands a red apple (in color) on her screen, and all hell breaks loose. Not literally. Just no one can agree on what constitutes knowledge, whether it’s solely physical or something beyond our understanding.

Here’s a quick video.

And here’s the full Knowledge Argument if you want to nerd out with me.