Blake Ross describes his inability to visualize mentally - Great read on Aphantasia

[AnOminous]

“What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.”​

― Eric Hoffer

I work in a technical field and I’m very good at using my imagination in that field, which is not visual at all.

We have a cure. It's right in this room. It's a simple shower.

 

[Devout Muslim]

“It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things… …the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.”

― Eric Hoffer

 

[Dylan]

Oh my god, we have swathes of people incabable of critical thought, literally, on this very forum we discuss them, there are swathes of people without mental capacity to comprehend some emotions or concepts.
I can imagine things on their meta level without visualizing or voicing them. These kinds of mentalizations are ephemeral and fast, and often gets you to recognize patterns, but it's difficult to bring up to language sometimes.
Aphantasia exists because lots of morons simply do not have their brains that developed, but only fewbof such morons reach consciousness treshhold to actually share their though processes

 

[male pattern malding]

I do wonder if there's different levels to this.

For me there's definitely a visual component to the imagination. When I'm trying to write a story, for example, and thinking of what's going on in a scene, I don't initially come up with a verbal description of what's happening, I come up with a rough visual concept of where characters are and what they're doing, and then start trying to put it into words. But the way some people describe it, if they're told to imagine an apple, they can literally close their eyes and project the image of an apple onto their eyelids, and I definitely can't do that.

Applies to other senses as well. Like if I try to imagine a somebody singing a song, I can imagine what it sounds like, the rhythm and melody, not just come up with a verbal description of what it might sound like. But I don't actually hear it like an auditory hallucination. I've experienced that a few times, waking up from a dream, still half-asleep, I very clearly hear a sound that isn't actually real. Imagining a sound is different from that.

 

[Cardinal Cardinal]

For having no imagination this guy sure knows how to write like a faggot.
Edit: I managed to finish that and some posts questioned how he functions without visualization. Not only that, he claims he has no memory of certain events like college. How does he remember anything he learned in college or even how to write a single letter with a pencil? I mean the process of forming the line to draw on paper. If he can't draw anything how can he write a single letter from the alphabet?

The best faith scenario I can come up with is this: when doing a math problem in my head I visualize the numbers like they would be written on a chalk board. If it was 143 - 41 it would be somewhat easy since I really just have to concentrate on the ones column lining up and subtracting 3 - 1, I can ignore or forget all other numbers. If its say 374 - 289, it gets more challenging since I have to keep track of all columns now. It becomes a process of starting with the ones column and remembering to borrow and subtract from the tens, hold the new image of the tens column in my mind while going back to the ones column. Most of the time I slowly lose the image in my head and have to start over remembering the original numbers.
Is that normal?

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I'll just visualize myself reading that shit and not actually do it, and say he's retarded.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

If they can't visualize anything in their mind and happen to have PhD in complex subjects, how can they write this off without reference? Doesn't shapes, symbols, numbers, letters and lines require memory?

(Ps. Basic Entry Level Calculus is fairly easy in my opinion).

 

[Devout Muslim]

How does he remember anything he learned in college or even how to write a single letter with a pencil? I mean the process of forming the line to draw on paper. If he can't draw anything how can he write a single letter from the alphabet?

Handwriting is muscle memory. Many animators don’t use mental visualisation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47830256

If it was 143 - 41 it would be somewhat easy since I really just have to concentrate on the ones column lining up and subtracting 3 - 1, I can ignore or forget all other numbers. If its say 374 - 289, it gets more challenging since I have to keep track of all columns now. It becomes a process of starting with the ones column and remembering to borrow and subtract from the tens, hold the new image of the tens column in my mind while going back to the ones column. Most of the time I slowly lose the image in my head and have to start over remembering the original numbers.
Is that normal?

It sounds pretty normal. I do the same but with words. If struggling to concentrate I would just brute-force as such:
374 take 289. 370 take 285. 365 take 280. 305 take 220. 285 take 200. 85.

 

[Dick Mason]

These people are abominations and I'm not even convinced they're actually people, but some kind of simulacra, fake humans.

I hope they're just making this shit up because I don't want these things around me.

I think it is similar to a lot of ethnic differences, that it boils down to evolution. Some people probably did not evolve the necessity for such an ability. The environment they stewed in did not demand it or it simply did not arise as a dominant trait for some reason. They were able to thrive and survive for however many tens of thousands of years without it. In nature's eyes, that's a win.

While some others developed those abilities, and that gave them an advantage, those lacking were outcompeted. Those that fell away disappeared from the gene pool or were minimized or branched off in another direction.

It is going to be down to heritable genetic advantage though, however it shook out. It doesn't necessarily have to break along racial lines. I'm sure there are half a billion Chinese who are literal hiving bugman, but then millions who aren't. Maybe in some populations it arises and it crushed under the weight of the mindless masses and can never truly take hold.

Imagine how many times that has happened in Sub-Sarahan Africa. You know Africans, as an incurably suicidal bucketcrab species, could find that to be an affront and might have stamped it out intentionally. "Dis nigga got apples in his head! Ima crack dat bitch open and go bobbing!"

Ultimately, eugenics is the only solution. Those with whatever genetic advantage is responsible for that should be granted boons, and those lacking should be send to the salt mines or the US Marines.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I think it is similar to a lot of ethnic differences, that it boils down to evolution. Some people probably did not evolve the necessity for such an ability. The environment they stewed in did not demand it or it simply did not arise as a dominant trait for some reason. They were able to thrive and survive for however many tens of thousands of years without it. In nature's eyes, that's a win.

While some others developed those abilities, and that gave them an advantage, those lacking were outcompeted. Those that fell away disappeared from the gene pool or were minimized or branched off in another direction.

It is going to be down to heritable genetic advantage though, however it shook out. It doesn't necessarily have to break along racial lines. I'm sure there are half a billion Chinese who are literal hiving bugman, but then millions who aren't. Maybe in some populations it arises and it crushed under the weight of the mindless masses and can never truly take hold.

Imagine how many times that has happened in Sub-Sarahan Africa. You know Africans, as an incurably suicidal bucketcrab species, could find that to be an affront and might have stamped it out intentionally. "Dis nigga got apples in his head! Ima crack dat bitch open and go bobbing!"

Ultimately, eugenics is the only solution. Those with whatever genetic advantage is responsible for that should be granted boons, and those lacking should be send to the salt mines or the US Marines.

this actually gets me curious. i wonder how much historical imagination was fueled by religion and trying to imagine religious imagery or other things related to belief systems and if that led to Europe and Christendom being as prevalent as they are in terms of cultural impact.

 

[keytar]

I can't see pictures well in my head at all but I have a really strong imagination, it's just based more on sound, movement and emotion than visualising. I'm alright at drawing because I have to draw things out to see what they look like, as I can't do that in my head. Likewise I have a good sense of direction it's just based more on spatial awareness and muscle memory.

That said, the guy who wrote this article sounds like he might be an actual retard. Like there's more going on there than just not being able to visualise things.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

The mistake some people are making with this article is that aphantasia only impacts implicit, event based recall (recall is what most people call "memory"). This is only one type of memory. Humans have many different types of memory. That is why he can learn how to do math, draw something, or ride a bike, because it is an entirely different type of recall system. You can think of it like "muscle memory", which is just a type of non-implicit, non-event based recall. You can do something because of muscle memory, but it doesn't require you to imagine or visually recall what to do.

 

[AnOminous]

But the way some people describe it, if they're told to imagine an apple, they can literally close their eyes and project the image of an apple onto their eyelids, and I definitely can't do that.

And if you can't do that (I can barely but that kind of detail takes a lot of concentration), then you're normal. So I think there's a good chance most people claiming this are exaggerating or being special snowflakes. Maybe some people do have it, but when bunches of people suddenly started claiming this bullshit on sites like reddit and tumblr I'm going to start out skeptical.

Who knows? Maybe the NPC meme is real. If anyone would have a mental defect like this it's redditors.