[khazhoux]

> The way I’ve usually “tested” it among friends/family/clients is to just ask them to imagine that there is a ball, on a table, and someone pushes the ball so that it rolls off the table onto the floor.

Note that it's possible to visualize motion of an object without visualizing the object itself. This is me. I can't hold any imagery in my head, but I can easily imagine the movement of a kickflip or a pirouette, or I can see the bouncing of three balls without seeing the balls themselves.

[y1n0]

> I can see the bouncing of three balls without seeing the balls themselves.

I know that we can’t get inside each other’s heads to truly understand their perception (yet), so I feel like these conversations can’t possibly go anywhere, but I feel compelled to say that, to me, what you are saying makes no sense whatsoever.

I’m not denying your experience. I’m just saying I can’t begin to comprehend it.

[khazhoux]

Yup!

I can describe it as: I see the motion vectors but not the objects. Imagine a dancer in a fog, you don’t see the dancer but see their imprint as they move…

[salawat]

Do you self-identify the movement through personal proprioception? Or is it completely disconnected from yourself, like a set of poltergeists dorking about in a nebula?

Interesting either way.

[khazhoux]

I can "visualize" motion with proprioception (e.g., imagining the motion of fingers opening and closing, but I don't actually see a hand) but also without any proprioception. Like, seeing the motion of a non-specific object bouncing around a box.

Try it!

[LouisSayers]

I resonate with their description of it, the way I'd describe it is something like:

Close your eyes and imagine the month March (just the idea of the month). Walk forward 2 months.

That's what a ball rolling off a table is like for some of us.

[ddingus]

When I read your words, I got an image of a calendar month, scaled big enough for a person to be walking on it. "Forward two months" got me that person walking near an edge, where next month was, and on that edge, the month after that.

It took only a small amount of time and steps for the person to leave "the month."

All that just happened. Popped into my thoughts. I don't really control it very well.

Given the month is roughly square with some room for the month name, and then the days in a grid, week by week, the person was about 4 days tall.

Our internal representations are so damn weird. It would be amazing to somehow share them.

Rando thought Sidebar:

Whales have this incredible song language. We really don't understand much yet. And they have those huge brains.

Maybe they can send this stuff to one another. Maybe being under water means a more robust sharing makes sense.

I can imagine them living rich lives, sharing with one another in a more direct way than we are capable of.

End Sidebar

[LouisSayers]

That's interesting that you'd instantly turn it into a visual representation.

If you were to remove those visual pieces and were only left with the abstract concept of a month and the fact that they're ordered then that's as best as I can really describe at least how I personally "visualise" something. It's more about ideas and the "feeling" of how different concepts relate to one another - e.g. March is a month and it is followed by April.

Perception is definitely subjective!