Visualize a dot on a straight line with closed eyes and move it freely to any position on the line. You can't. Perception can learn programs to compare continuous variables, but can only consciously represent them in associable increments.
-
-
Replying to @mere_mortise
I have aphantasia, so I cannot check before tomorrow morning, but I can imagine sounds with continuous pitch changes
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Plinz
Did not expect a proponent of the perception == generation hypotheses to have aphantasia :D. It seems the brain can construct pseudocontinuous reps by comparing continuous states ("a bit higher", "a bit to the right"). There are only continuous subconscious reps.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @mere_mortise @Plinz
I think it's important to realize that the method of discretization, while fundamental, is not well understood. There's room for a breakthrough here. A single variable audio input of 3 sequential piano notes gets turned into 3 discrete objects, yet experience itself is cont. How?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @NeuroMyths @mere_mortise
There is one dimension where the signal is continuous (loudness), and another one where it is not (pitch), and depending on where you focus, you get a different classification result?
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Plinz @mere_mortise
But the output has to be continuous because experience and behavior are continuous. Somehow in that output the discrete thing is represented. Single var continuous input --> some computation --> single var continuous output that contains the discrete classification.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @NeuroMyths @mere_mortise
Yet neural representations are discrete, at timescales that we can often even resolve! At least one trick seems to be that we represent continuous motion via keyframes and operators that allow to derive the next keyframe.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Plinz @mere_mortise
That's true, but to get a stream of thought (as in experience) you need to get from the neural reps to the single var output (experience is always unified). Just like an audio sig can contain a dozen instruments playing simultaneously even though it's just 1 var changing
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @NeuroMyths @mere_mortise
If you have a lesion in V4 or a synchronization problem caused by serotonin malfunction your visual experience may become discrete. Generally, the model approaches the structure of the domain, so a modality may go from discrete to unitary to discrete, at different levels
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Plinz @mere_mortise
I'm not sure what you could possibly mean when you say that visual experience could become discrete. That sounds nonsensical.
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Stroboscopic keyframes instead of continuous movement
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.