| this comes as no surprise. But Camerron's post illustrates a deeper issue. The world we live in is a mental model created by our brains, and the data that underlies the model is supplied by our senses. The model we make will differ depending on which of our senses is dominant. For example, my primary sense is vision. When I read fiction, I often see pictures in fiction my head. I can be thrown out of a story because the pieces don't fit together, and I find myself saying "You can't get there from here!" But vision isn't everyone's primary sense. My SO is a good example. She's extremely nearsighted. Without her glasses, anything farther than about 2' from her face is a blur. Her primary sense is hearing. When she asks me a technical question, my first impulse is to grab pencil and paper and draw a diagram. That conveys nothing to her, so I need to find a different metaphor based on hearing to describe the underlying concept. I corresponded with a chap years back whose primary sense was touch. He felt holes in arguments. And in the oddest case I recall hearing of, there was a chap who could not find his way to the office in the morning. He was not stupid, and was a trained engineer. But testing revealed he was not visual at all. Landmarks conveyed nothing to him. He did have a strong kinesthetic sense. So he was driven from his home to his office in a low slung sports car that transmitted every dip and curve in the toad to the passengers. Thereafter, he could find his way to the office with no problem,. because his body remembered what the drive felt like. I've spent a fair it of time over the years exploring where people are coming from in discussions. "Yes, I understand what you believe. You've made that quite clear and explicit. My question is why you believe it? How did you adopt this belief? What makes it emotionally satisfying to you?' Belief systems like religion and politics live on an emotional level, and aren't usually amenable to rational argument but cause they aren't rational in origin. What our primary sense is and how that affects your view of the world my be more critical than you assume. No, you aren't representative, and others may not share your experience. |