Let me rephrase the question – Do we call the Visible Spectrum that because that’s what we can see or is there something different about that part of electromagnetic spectrum (ES) that allow vision to occur. Alternately, If light is dual in nature, being both a wave and a particle, is that the same for other parts of the ES?
Which brings me to the question that I’m most curious about; would it be possible for a creature exist that can see, the same way we see, but using frequencies from other areas of the ES?
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Visible light isn’t really different from other parts of the EM spectrum.
It is just the part that our eyes can see.
There are animals which can see other parts of the spectrum. It is all mostly centered on the same part we can see and extends further in one direction or other, because that part is good for seeing things in the world we live in.
Birds tend to see more in the ultra-violet range than we do and some insects and arthropods can see a lot more with their eyes than we do. Mantis shrimp are often held up as example of just how much it is possible to see (mantis shrimp can also punch hard enough to plasma burst from cavitation not unlike a Street Fighter character, they are weird).
As far as sensing em waves not with eyes goes. Some snakes have infra red sensing organs. It is not really “seeing” but they can sense things that give of infrared waves and thus can find prey that is warmer than the surroundings.
Biological receptors too far from visible light would be both complicated and relatively useless to have under most circumstances but probably not impossible.
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