Close your eyes and try to imagine a red star. Alright, which of the 6 examples did you see in your head? Poll in tweet below 
pic.twitter.com/k8FadgsyrR
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... I didn't realize people _literally_ see things when they try to visualize them?? I'm firmly #1 from the example image. TIL this is "aphantasia." h/t @nayafia
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When you imagine things what happens? Also: can you play songs in your head? I sometimes do :-)
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If I try to visualize the image of something, I can “feel” the idea of it if that makes any sense but I see nothing. When I try to think of, say, my childhood home there is detail and order, but it’s just felt and feels like associations with a point in time.
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Yeah I can recreate songs. Audio is quite easy
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Oh, interesting ! I knew of aphantasia, but I wonder if there is also a similar concept but for sound.
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My hypothesis is that NVLD (nonverbal learning disorder; inability to visualize) and Autism (very visual thinking) are part of the same spectrum. NVLD is only diagnosed in extreme cases because hyper-verbal thinkers are more capable of masking their deficiencies than autists.
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(high-functioning NVLD is generally diagnosed as Autism (or maybe Aspergers), ignoring that high-functioning hyper-verbal thinkers actually think quite differently from high-functioning visual thinkers)
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Very interesting!
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Like all good things in life, I heard it first from
@michael_nielsen
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I wouldn’t say it’s “literally” seeing things, but it is a mental “image” (and doesn’t even strictly require closing eyes, because it’s “on a different display buffer”)
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Yeah like I see all black when I close my eyes but I can sort of ignore that and "see" things in the back of my mind. Come to think of it, it is easier for me to "see" things in my head with my eyes open.
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The following panels are from Understanding comics by Scott Mccloud. Look at how he depicts a person trying to visualize his own face. Just a vague sense of a face, no vivid detail. I wonder how the people who voted for #6 above visualize their own faces..pic.twitter.com/bOqSbs48WP
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I have this too. I’d be really interested to see if the answer to this correlates with what kind of books people like to read
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So for a sample of one, what do you like to read? Any fiction?
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My favorites are Wildbow’s work (Worm, etc) and rational fiction (eg Methods of Rationality). Not as much, but I also liked GoT and Kingkiller Chronicles. I don’t like pretty much any classic lit. I’ve read lots of NonF but no favs. Maybe Accidents in American Climbing
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