You say “apple” to me and I’m #1, glossy skin, insides, all that

And how in the hell does one navigate life, or enjoy a book, if they’re not a #1?! Reading a book is like watching a movie. I subconsciously assign actor’s faces to characters and watch as the book rolls on.

Yet #5’s are not handicapped in the slightest. They’re so “normal” that mankind is just now figuring out we’re far apart on this thing. Fucking weird.

EDIT: Showed this to my wife and she was somewhat mystified as to what I was asking. Pretty sure she’s a 5. I get frustrated as hell when I ask her to describe a thing and she’s clueless. “Did the radiator hose pop off, or is it torn and cracked?” “I don’t know!”

EDIT2: The first Star Wars book after the movie came out was Splinter in the Mind’s Eye. I feel like I got that title. What’s it mean to you?

  • KoboldCoterie@pawb.socialEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    If you close your eyes and focus on an apple, what do you see? My understanding is that people without aphantasia / who are “1s” can actually see an image of the apple, as though they were looking at it. If you just see black, no image at all, you might be a 5.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      I think I’m overthinking this, but I can’t tell how you would know that you’re seeing it. I think I see it if I try, but my natural inclination is more like I know the apple’s there but I’m not looking at it.

      Bizarrely, I am sure that I can “see” aspects of the apple, because that’s how I’m trying to focus on seeing it. Like, I can see the dimple where the stem connects and the curve of the apple with natural color variation for the part of the apple that I can see, but if I try to zoom out, it’s back to awareness of the apple.

      I think I’m overthinking it, because I can “see” approximations of the apple variations in this post, but maybe it’s because they’re two dimensional.

      • KoboldCoterie@pawb.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        It’s possible that you’re a 3 or a 4. My understanding is that people who are 1s can see the apple as though it was there in front of them. They can rotate the image in their minds, break it in half and examine the insides, see the seeds and the veins on the leaf and the discoloration near the stem. Zooming in or out isn’t problematic at all.

        If you’re a 5, you can certainly be aware of these things - that they’re features of an apple - but if you really focus on seeing the apple - as though with your eyes, rather than just thinking about the features of the apple as qualitative properties - you can’t do it. It’s just blackness.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          I’m not sure what difference this makes, but I can see snapshots of each of those, just not video. Though if I imagine biting into an apple, I can get all the senses together.

          I think I might have just been trying to isolate sight from the other senses, because the only real experience I have with only the sight of apples is in pictures, so it being automatically 2d does make sense.

          They can rotate the image in their minds, break it in half and examine the insides, see the seeds and the veins on the leaf and the discoloration near the stem.

          Yeah, checking now, I can see those things as well as long as I’m also feeling, hearing, and smelling them.

          Thank you! I first learned about this a while ago and I’ve occasionally wondered about it. I don’t think I would have figured it out without you talking me through it.

          • KoboldCoterie@pawb.socialEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            You’re welcome! It’s a topic I find intriguing, and it’s always interesting to discuss the different ways people experience these things, now that I realize we’re not all the same. :)