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When reading "picture an apple with three blue dots on it", I have an abstract concept of an apple and three dots. There's really no geometry there, without fol
by brotchie 1y ago
When reading "picture an apple with three blue dots on it", I have an abstract concept of an apple and three dots. There's really no geometry there, without follow on questions, or some priming in the question.
In my conscious experience I pretty much imagine {apple, dot, dot, dot}. I don't "see" blue, the dots are tagged with dot.color == blue.
When you ask about the arrangement of the dots, I'll THEN think about it, and then says "arranged in a triangle." But that's because you've probed with your question. Before you probed, there's no concept in my mind of any geometric arrangement.
If I hadn't been prompted to think / naturally thought about the color of the apple, and you asked me "what color is the apple." Only then would I say "green" or "red."
If you asked me to describe my office (for example) my brain can't really imagine it "holistically." I can think of the desk and then enumerate it's properties: white legs, wooden top, rug on ground. But, essentially, I'm running a geometric iterator over the scene, starting from some anchor object, jumping to nearby objects, and then enumerating their properties.
I have glimpses of what it's like to "see" in my minds eye. At night, in bed, just before sleep, if I concentrate really hard, I can sometimes see fleeting images. I liken it to looking at one of those eye puzzles where you have to relax your eyes to "see it." I almost have to focus on "seeing" without looking into the blackness of my closed eyes.
- rimprobablyly 1y agoExactly my experience too. These fleeting images are rare, but bloody hell it feels like cheating at life if most people can summon up visualisations like that at will.
- derektank 1y agoI can't recall it ever being useful outside of physics and geometry questions tbh
- theshrike79 1y agoWatching someone clearly just transfer what's in their mind to a drawing is just jaw-dropping to me. Like they'll start at an arm and move along filling the rest of the body correctly the first time. No sketching, no finding the lines, just a human printer.
- marak830 1y agoWelcome to the aphantasia club. We would make signs for our next meeting, but no one's come up with a good design yet :s You may notice when doing the apple test, once you try and define a texture, your brain adding things you think should be there. Scared the crap out of me a few years ago when I realized I had it. Came to grips with it now.
- typpilol 1y agoI've come to realize that's how they all are. No one really sees 3d pictures in their head in HD
- hamdingers 1y agoI'm a 5 on the VVIQ. I can see the 3D apple, put it in my hand, rotate it, watch the light glint on the dimples in the skin, imagine tossing it to a close friend and watch them catch it, etc. It's equally astonishing to me that others are different.
- typpilol 1y agoYou close your eyes and see exactly what you would on a TV with your eyes open?
- hamdingers 1y agoI don't need to close my eyes, it doesn't make much of a difference, and I see what my eyes would see. It doesn't look like a TV unless I imagine a TV and put the image on the screen.
- typpilol 1y agoThey doesnt answer my question. Do you see these pictures the same as if you were watching an HD TV? I'm going to guess no. You don't see literally high def pictures in your head.
- hamdingers 1y agoAnd I'm going to guess you have no visualization ability, which is why you can only think in terms of a TV. That's fine, but your egocentric inability to acknowledge other people have different abilities is not, it's childish.
- Workaccount2 1y ago
- brisky 1y agoI think I have it as well. But my theory is that we might have imagination but it is only accessible to subconscious. It is as if it is blocked from consciousness. I have ADHD as well, might be that this is protection mechanism that allows my kind of brain to survive in the world better (otherwise it would be too entertaining to get lost in your own imagination). As a kid I used to daydream a lot.