Ep 50: The Scooter Gap

[tofos]

This episode we talk about Adam's mental blindness, how to train away your nearsightedness, and why Metroidvanias are JUST THE FREAKIN' WORST.

https://soundcloud.com/butterscotch-she ... cooter-gap

[tofos]

Sorry @bscotshsam, but I have to discuss something here.

@bscotchAdam, can't you see images in your mind? Damn, you're a freak! That's first what I thought. But then you said about you reading books and skipping descriptive parts and hey, that's what I do too. Then I thought, OK, @bscotchsam, @bscotchseth, you can see images, but can you imagine colours? Because I can't. And you know what? Few days passed and I'm not sure now if I can really see the images in my mind. I definitely can think about things I can't see, but I don't see them. When I close my eyes, all I can see are blurry stains of light. Damn!

[edit] One more thing came to my mind. Can you imagine voices in your mind? Because I think that sometimes I can. E.g. I can hear voices of my relatives if I focus enough.

[edit2] @bscotchAdam, can you dream?

[kevin888]

I can't imagine not imagining. Or maybe I'm imagining my imagining and I don't imagine how you're supposed to imagine.
It's hard for me to draw stuff without a reference picture. I have more of a general ideas of a thing, but can't put it on paper without a reference unless I know the thing really well.
I think it's easier to remember shapes or something. Details are more difficult.
I think that's normal though.
Also, congrats on 50 episodes!

[tofos]

I definitely can imagine things. I just don't see them. And I can't describe the details about them. This might sound dumb, but it's like to see invisible things. Or rather like to feel them. I can't see them, but I know that they ere there and what they're doing.

[bscotchseth]

After we talked about this, Adam realized that this is why he has a difficult time imagining new game ideas, but can easily give excellent (and incredibly useful) feedback on existing game ideas, once they're created.

I'm pretty sure there's some kind of spectrum, ranging from full photo-realistic imagination all the way to just a blank void.

[bscotchAdam]

@tofos I do dream, but never remember any photographic sorts of details about them. I also didn't realize I wasn't ACTUALLY seeing things in my mind until I started to think about it. My brain does a great job of representing things in my mind so they don't need to have true imagery. But as soon as tried to conjure any sort of image I found it was completely impossible.

Sounds like you have it too!

[bsb333]

@bscotchAdam I would be curious to see you draw stuff without a template and how aphantasia effects you in that regard. One the other hand I am not really sure if even use my mind's eye that much when I draw...

But I guess you can't have burnt in images with Aphantasia either:
When I play a new video game too much, especially right before going to bed, it can happen that my mind's eye only conjures images of that game. At that point I can hardly control my minds eye at all and it's somewhat hard to fall asleep like that. Thankfully that hapens only ~5 times a year to me at max.

[kevin888]

Yeah, tofos, I think it pretty normal to not be able to see things in your mind. I know some people have photographic memory, but I can't do that. I almost never remember dreams unless I wake up in the middle of something.

[Ulnarevern]

I have the same thing as bsb333. It can do it with sensations too (like, if you get in the sea with waves, or in a rollercoaster, you still feel the thing after).

I also have that with voices from time to time. It is disturbing to hear voices of people in your head talking to you when you lie alone in bed.

Now that I think of it, most of the imagery I can get in mind is either through dreams (so lifelike), excessive gaming (same as bsb) and some random imagination sparks. Otherwise I have a really hard time imagining something, as long as I don't have a random starter.



I think it's usually by waking up that you can remember your dreams. If you exercise yourself you can remember it without waking up in the middle of it, but it usually needs exercise.

And I do have that photographic memories sometimes. Like, I know exactly where the damn answers to the final's questions are on the page, but it's too blurry to remember the text.

[AlanFalcon]

@tofos I was wondering about the internal deafness idea as well. Would that be connected to internal blindness, or its own thing?

I know that I often hear relative's or celebrity's voices in my head, either a memory of a specific line they've said or sometimes their voice is just so iconic that just invoking their name brings out the voice. Like if I told you to imagine elder Sean Connery saying:

"My friend was crushed by a pile of books, he only has his shelf to blame."