I know a guy who has aphantasia and is using AI image generation to actually see what he’s thinking about.
He explained that his imagination is more like an itemized list.
How do people imagine stuff? When people say something like “I can imagine X vividly,” I really can’t relate. When asked to imagine things, I can only have split-second snapshots of the things in my mind. My mind’s eye is more like reading a comic.
no thought process is wrong as far as I know. you don’t need to visually imagine things even to be successful in art, I know at least one artist who doesn’t think visually, they still paint beautifully, their process just involves a lot of references and live models when possible. there’s a lot of creative professionals who use just as much visual references as they do.
For ne it just happens, like blinking, no though needed. I picture a red ball and it is there i see it, i can spin it, i can even move tge camera around. Even the empty space between the ball and wall and there.
I have a similar problem. My apple becomes like 30 different recent apple images I have seen. Like I can try to imagine a Red delicious and at some point I lose focus and it might become a granny Smith and then back to like a honey crisp.
I’ll get snapshots that are blurry, like a momentary glimpse at a developing photograph, then it moves to the next portion. I’ll see shades of apple colors, faded to just the shape, a silhouette and only a concept of depth. I’ll imagine the weight, having thrown them so often. But no. There is no apple.
I know a guy who has aphantasia and is using AI image generation to actually see what he’s thinking about. He explained that his imagination is more like an itemized list.
That’s exactly how my imagination is.
I can imagine an apple
It’s red It’s round It has stem and sticker
I can’t see it at all
How do people imagine stuff? When people say something like “I can imagine X vividly,” I really can’t relate. When asked to imagine things, I can only have split-second snapshots of the things in my mind. My mind’s eye is more like reading a comic.
no thought process is wrong as far as I know. you don’t need to visually imagine things even to be successful in art, I know at least one artist who doesn’t think visually, they still paint beautifully, their process just involves a lot of references and live models when possible. there’s a lot of creative professionals who use just as much visual references as they do.
For ne it just happens, like blinking, no though needed. I picture a red ball and it is there i see it, i can spin it, i can even move tge camera around. Even the empty space between the ball and wall and there.
You’ve just injected a 3d animated scene into my brain and I like it
Maybe you could train yourself to imagine longer passages?
I have a similar problem. My apple becomes like 30 different recent apple images I have seen. Like I can try to imagine a Red delicious and at some point I lose focus and it might become a granny Smith and then back to like a honey crisp.
I’ll get snapshots that are blurry, like a momentary glimpse at a developing photograph, then it moves to the next portion. I’ll see shades of apple colors, faded to just the shape, a silhouette and only a concept of depth. I’ll imagine the weight, having thrown them so often. But no. There is no apple.
How do you know that’s it’s round and red and has a stem and a sticker if you can’t see it?
Because I’ve seen them before?
It’s no different to if I wrote it down