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I remember the huge lightbulb that went off in my head when I discovered that number forms are a form of synesthesia. I've had number forms all my life. I neve

I remember the huge lightbulb that went off in my head when I discovered that number forms are a form of synesthesia. I've had number forms all my life. I never knew where they came from or why, so the way I see numbers finally made sense when I found out that it was part of a condition I've actually heard of before. I also have some weak chromagraphemia, but the number forms are much stronger. For example, here's a rough approximation of how I see the numbers 0-100. It's not perfect because it's hard to do suble slopes in text. 69 70 71 66 67 68 72 73 74 63 64 65 75 76 77 60 61 62 78 79 80 29 30 31 59 81 28 32 58 82 27 33 57 83 26 34 56 84 25 35 55 85 24 36 54 86 23 37 53 87 22 38 52 88 21 39 51 89 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 This also applies to years, by the way. Just add 1900 to all these numbers and you have my visualization of the 20th century. I find it amusing that the Great Depression is a downward slope... but so is the boom of the '80s.

tbirrell 9y ago
Spatial synesthesia is the weirdest thing because it does not conform to physics. In my head at least. Technically speaking, 1-5 and 20-23 or so should be on top of each other, but they never are. I am something like this 5 6 7 8 9 10 4 11 3 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 2 1 then its just lines like this (but upside down to the bit above) etc 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
- amyjess 9y ago
  FYI, you need to prefix your numbers with four spaces for the formatting to be preserved.
liberte82 9y ago
Do you only see number positions relative to each other or does a number on its own sit in a position in space for you? I'm trying to imagine what this is like.
- tbirrell 9y ago
  Yes and no. If you gave me a single number, I'd see it and everything around it. So it has its own space and orientation, and if anything else is nearby in space I'll kind see that in my periphery. For example, 76 is directly above 66. And 56 is directly below. So I'd be aware of those as well as 65 and 67 if I think about 66. It's like every number is there, and then I zoom in on the location of the one I'm thinking about. Does that make sense?
pawelk 9y ago
I was aware of my synesthesia for quite some time (numbers and letters had their colors for as long as I can remember, it also extends to some sound/taste/color combinations). I don't remember how it occurred to me that it's not how everyone perceives the world, must have been early in my childhood. But I have never heard of this number form concept so thank you for unlocking it for me. My number form for natural numbers is quite smooth, like a tangent line progressing just slightly for numbers 0 - 20, then becoming almost vertical at >70. Of course the numbers (or, to be precise, digits, but sometimes they blend) have their colors. Negative numbers progress horizontally along the x axis to the left. Does visualizing time also fall under a number form phenomenon? Or is it described by some other term? I'd love to learn more! Thinking of a year I see a disc, slightly tilted so winter months are a bit lower than summer, the time progress is counter-clockwise and I am constantly oriented spatially on this disc. So I always go "left" and "uphill" in the spring, and "downhill" in autumn, and past months are not simply "behind" me, I can point to them in space (so now, in October, January is more in front and slightly to the left, April is across on the other side, November just down the road, etc. To make things more fun every month has its color). Thinking about time brings me there just like thinking about walking around my real neighborhood brings awareness of how am I positioned in relation to my house. Thinking on smaller time scales just zooms it in and positions me like I was observing the edge of the disc from the inside (so weeks progress to the left as well; thinking about any week in a year makes me spatially aware of where I am in relation to the year). Just trying to describe it for the first time makes it seem strange to me, while it was something that simply always has been with me all the time, and I half expect you to tell me that, in fact, this is basically how everyone perceives time. tl;dr: is there a separate term to describe mapping time to space, or more generally applying spatial awareness to other phenomena / prceiving time using other senses?

tbirrell 9y ago

Spatial synesthesia is the weirdest thing because it does not conform to physics. In my head at least. Technically speaking, 1-5 and 20-23 or so should be on top of each other, but they never are. I am something like this 5 6 7 8 9 10 4 11 3 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 2 1 then its just lines like this (but upside down to the bit above) etc 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

amyjess 9y ago
FYI, you need to prefix your numbers with four spaces for the formatting to be preserved.

liberte82 9y ago

Do you only see number positions relative to each other or does a number on its own sit in a position in space for you? I'm trying to imagine what this is like.

tbirrell 9y ago
Yes and no. If you gave me a single number, I'd see it and everything around it. So it has its own space and orientation, and if anything else is nearby in space I'll kind see that in my periphery. For example, 76 is directly above 66. And 56 is directly below. So I'd be aware of those as well as 65 and 67 if I think about 66. It's like every number is there, and then I zoom in on the location of the one I'm thinking about. Does that make sense?

pawelk 9y ago

I was aware of my synesthesia for quite some time (numbers and letters had their colors for as long as I can remember, it also extends to some sound/taste/color combinations). I don't remember how it occurred to me that it's not how everyone perceives the world, must have been early in my childhood. But I have never heard of this number form concept so thank you for unlocking it for me. My number form for natural numbers is quite smooth, like a tangent line progressing just slightly for numbers 0 - 20, then becoming almost vertical at >70. Of course the numbers (or, to be precise, digits, but sometimes they blend) have their colors. Negative numbers progress horizontally along the x axis to the left. Does visualizing time also fall under a number form phenomenon? Or is it described by some other term? I'd love to learn more! Thinking of a year I see a disc, slightly tilted so winter months are a bit lower than summer, the time progress is counter-clockwise and I am constantly oriented spatially on this disc. So I always go "left" and "uphill" in the spring, and "downhill" in autumn, and past months are not simply "behind" me, I can point to them in space (so now, in October, January is more in front and slightly to the left, April is across on the other side, November just down the road, etc. To make things more fun every month has its color). Thinking about time brings me there just like thinking about walking around my real neighborhood brings awareness of how am I positioned in relation to my house. Thinking on smaller time scales just zooms it in and positions me like I was observing the edge of the disc from the inside (so weeks progress to the left as well; thinking about any week in a year makes me spatially aware of where I am in relation to the year). Just trying to describe it for the first time makes it seem strange to me, while it was something that simply always has been with me all the time, and I half expect you to tell me that, in fact, this is basically how everyone perceives time. tl;dr: is there a separate term to describe mapping time to space, or more generally applying spatial awareness to other phenomena / prceiving time using other senses?