This is more of me trying to understand how people imagine things, as I almost certainly have Aphantasia and didn’t realize until recently… If this is against community rules, please do let me know.

The original thought experiment was from the Aphantasia subreddit. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aphantasia/comments/g1e6bl/ball_on_a_table_visualization_experiment_2/

Thought experiment begins below.

Try this: Visualise (picture, imagine, whatever you want to call it) a ball on a table. Now imagine someone walks up to the table, and gives the ball a push. What happens to the ball?

Once you're done with the above, click to review the test questions:
  • What color was the ball?
  • What gender was the person that pushed the ball?
  • What did they look like?
  • What size is the ball? Like a marble, or a baseball, or a basketball, or something else?
  • What about the table, what shape was it? What is it made of?

And now the important question: Did you already know, or did you have to choose a color/gender/size, etc. after being asked these questions?

  • NorthWestWind@lemmy.world
    7·
    3 months ago

    I imagined it in a cartoon-ish fashion, so I think I can actually draw it out.

    drawing

    • Red ball
    • Male
    • Like Google’s default profile picture, without facial features, except he’s in gray and has a neck
    • My single hand can surround more than half of it in a cross section view, so about 12cm in diameter
    • Rectangular table, about 5:2, I didn’t imagine the material, but it’s plain brown, so I guess wood?

    Additionally, the ball rolls parallel to the long edge of the table, and falls off the short edge. The person also have legs.

    I already had these in my mind before being asked.

    • catbum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      My brother in Christ you have described almost the exact same specs I visualized. The only difference is in the level of resolution of my “scene.” And by that, I mean essentially I did a few more render passes in my head to anchor everything you’ve written within a sort of Impressionistic, highly softened, out-of-focus backdrop. I saw hints of shadowy cabinets, the concept of a darkened kitchen out of sight. The shape and finger placement of my slightly more textured, clothed yet featureless male. The gray-brown feeling of a floor below, a dark white ceiling above, and the faded glow of sunlight through an unseen dining room window grazing one end of that oaken table.

      But the basics … They’re the same, and before being asked to recall them. Damn.

    • untorquer@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 months ago

      More or less but person didn’t have gender because that wasn’t relevant to the subject which was the rolling ball. Ball also bounced a few times when hitting the floor.