(no subject)

[feotakahari]

You know that person who doesn't feel fear, so she can't recognize other people's fear? My mental image projector is broken, and the good thing about this is that I can read about disgusting shit without picturing it. The downside is that I don't really understand the images I put in people's heads when I start infodumping.

Comments

[lb_lee]

When you read, what senses (if any) are involved in the process of taking it in?

[feotakahari]

It’s not really senses. It’s more like in a movie where you see something from a cyborg’s perspective, and there are all these words in the air labeling the things the cyborg is seeing and their relevance as threats/tools. I’m not literally seeing words in the air, but it’s a similar experience of refining things down to facts and inferences.

In real life, my brain does this to visual information so fast that I tend not to be very aware of the things I’m seeing on a conscious level. I’m still seeing things, but I have to sort of mentally jolt myself in order to set aside the statements and consciously look at them. All my other senses seem to work normally—I can hear, smell, etc. on a conscious level even when I’m not concentrating.

When I’m reading, the only sense I’m getting is visual, so it all goes straight to facts and inferences. Even if I try to picture something, it’s going to be pretty blurry without a visual example in front of me. Same for hearing about something secondhand, actually—I have the sensation of hearing it, but I don’t have a clear mental picture of what’s being described.

Sometimes I wonder if that’s why I spend so much time thinking about all this philosophy stuff. Maybe when you consciously see things, you spend more time thinking about the things you see and the world outside your own head.

BTW, this is one of the reasons I like 2D animation. It’s already simplified and stylized, so it’s easy for me to suspend disbelief and process it like I would process a live video. 3D animation is more likely to introduce complications that are noticeably unreal, like a character’s hair clipping through their body, and processing those facts knocks me out of my suspension of disbelief.

[lb_lee]

Uh. So, like aphantasia? That's really interesting! And I feel like it explains a lot of how you see the world.

That's super neat to learn! Thanks, Feo!

[feotakahari]

Aphantasia isn’t quite it. I can make mental images; they just tend to be super blurry because I don’t spend a lot of time consciously looking at things. They look a lot like Monet’s haystack paintings, actually.

[lb_lee]

Those paintings are pretty. And still, that's super interesting. I tend to visualize less than I use proprioception or touch, so I can visualize, but generally don't.

--Rogan

[feotakahari]

Pretty, huh? This story struck me through to my core: http://ralafferty.com/2017/05/22/through-other-eyes/ With the way I process things without really seeing them, refining them down to facts, I was always afraid I was Cogsworth. It’s nice to think there’s value in my blurry little haystacks.