When humans couldn't see blue

I recently read an extremely interesting article about the perception of color. Of course, I was drawn in by the title, "No one could see the color blue until modern times." What??
But really interesting things about humanity's past were revealed, as relating to language and perception. It struck me that this subject related to my profession, as well. Actually, it relates to everyone's profession, and proficiency in general. And what it means to be an expert.

If you don't have time right now to read this very interesting article by Kevin Loria, I can use some quotes to sum up before moving on.

Until relatively recently in human history, "blue" didn't exist, not in the way we think of it.

…ancient languages didn't have a word for blue — not Greek, not Chinese, not Japanese, not Hebrew. And without a word for the color, there is evidence that they may not have seen it at all.

The only ancient culture to develop a word for blue was the Egyptians — and as it happens, they were also the only culture that had a way to produce a blue dye. 

So before we had a word for it, did people not naturally see blue? 

…without a word for a color, without a way of identifying it as different, it is much harder for us to notice what is unique about it — even though our eyes are physically seeing… it in the same way. 

So before blue became a common concept, maybe humans saw it. But it seems they did not know they were seeing it.

If you see something yet can't see it, does it exist? 

There's even a physical test included in the article that perfectly demonstrates that when people use different sets of tools (words), some won't see a simple distinction that you and I easily make every day – and vice versa! At first, I thought I was staring at eleven blocks of identical green, until the author asked me to pick out the one that was different! It took me a few moments, but I was able to. I imagine some of you would not.

The vast majority of people can name every color in a box of 8, 16 and maybe even 24 crayons. But do you know what mauve is? Or chartreuse? You can probably "see" them, as the ancients "saw" blue, but either cannot distinguish them from their neighbors purple and green, or must resort to using extra modifiers like "dull-" or "bright-."

Did you know that Brazilians, with a populace comprised of every shade of human being, make no fewer than 14 racial distinctions? It's just something they think about a lot more than we do.

Which brings me to the professions in the visual arts – designer, decorator, photographer, artist. Yes, we see blue. But we're also SO used to seeing blue in all its varying shades that we probably make more distinctions than the average person can. Can you imagine an interior decorator who accidentally reupholstered your sectional to match sky blue instead of navy blue? It wouldn't happen because people in visual professions have the language, the words, and the mindsets to deal with appropriate subtleties and complexities.

Here's a color test I took to determine my own color acuity. My eyes almost fell out of my head, but I'm happy to say I scored (low being good) a 3 out of 99. How will you do?

I humbly ask that you respect an artist who might criticize a photo as being blurry, out-of-focus, grainy, low in contrast, undersaturated, overcooked, jaggy, banded or blown out, while you only saw "not so good." 

And I promise to defer to your own expertise, in kind.