Thinking in Pictures
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LORD_RED_DRAGON
New Metal Member
in my experience (interacting with ESL classes) i find that most of the bi-lingual people that are fluent (or any where close to being fluent) experience thisErik said:
I'd like to resurrect this thread. The impetus for doing so is because of a pretty good movie: the Prestige. The movie has a bit to do about Nikola Tesla. I had no idea whether certain things Tesla is shown doing in the movie were true or not, but I went to the movie with my younger brother who is a computer engineer. He told me after the movie, Tesla was the smartest man ever to live. I knew he did a lot with electricity and the radio, but I had no idea he pioneered almost every invention of the modern age; and most were so far ahead of their time, they were disregarded. Hell, most of his ideas were disregarded as he was considered too strange for society, and died penniless despite his superhuman discoveries and intelligence.
So, I've been reading up on Tesla, and he was indeed, the smartest person Ive ever come across. Anyway, Tesla claimed all of his ideas were formed by mental images and inspiration. He saw the solution of the math problem, or the machine he wished to build etc. He even hyphothesized a machine that would store/show our thoughts. He called it the "thought photography" machine. He reasoned that a thought formed in the mind created a corresponding image in the retina, and the electrical data of this neural transmission could be read and recorded in a machine. The stored information could then be processed through an artificial optic nerve and played back as visual patterns on a viewscreen.
Just an interesting side-note I thought.
So, I've been reading up on Tesla, and he was indeed, the smartest person Ive ever come across. Anyway, Tesla claimed all of his ideas were formed by mental images and inspiration. He saw the solution of the math problem, or the machine he wished to build etc. He even hyphothesized a machine that would store/show our thoughts. He called it the "thought photography" machine. He reasoned that a thought formed in the mind created a corresponding image in the retina, and the electrical data of this neural transmission could be read and recorded in a machine. The stored information could then be processed through an artificial optic nerve and played back as visual patterns on a viewscreen.
Just an interesting side-note I thought.
What other modern inventions did this Nikola Tesla create? It will be out of this world, if it is possible to have a machine that can store and present thoughts. Wouldnt it be a major privacy problem though.
Seditious
GodSlayer
I'd only go so far as to say some of my thoughts definitely are pictures, not that all can be.
Korona
Shadow Creator
- Jan 23, 2005
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As a point of order, a significant minority of perfectly ordinary people "hear voices" in their heads (or claim to - I am not one of them) however that is not what constitutes schitzophrenia. For that you would need rapidly deteriorating or totally split personality.
As for using philosophers like Wittgenstein to support ideas like "mental picturing". You need to understand what constitutes a "picture". As far as Wittgenstein is concerned a statement like "The line intimates to me the way I am to go" (from section 222 of the investigations) contains a "picture". He isn't saying that we need some kind of photograph in our heads to be able to think about something
He would support the idea that to think about something you need to be able to "picture" it, but that isnt the same as saying you need to have something like a painting in your head before thought is possible.
As for using philosophers like Wittgenstein to support ideas like "mental picturing". You need to understand what constitutes a "picture". As far as Wittgenstein is concerned a statement like "The line intimates to me the way I am to go" (from section 222 of the investigations) contains a "picture". He isn't saying that we need some kind of photograph in our heads to be able to think about something
He would support the idea that to think about something you need to be able to "picture" it, but that isnt the same as saying you need to have something like a painting in your head before thought is possible.
Discovery
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- Dec 28, 2005
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Synesthesia is the term used for associating colors with certain letters, numbers, or tones. A person with this ability would be able to pick out instantly a certain number in a group of other numbers the same way a normal person would be able to focus on one color that is surrounded by other colors. This condition is thought to be a next step in human evolution and is more predominant in females.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
BloodSword
Member
I definitely think in pictures. I always try to visualize. Have you not tryed to visualize what some of these people on this forum may look like after you have read one of their posts? I know I have.
Silver Incubus
Dead Hands Justin
I would like to say that I think in Pictures, feelings and sounds.
I have like most musicians I talk to, music always playing in my head, as I am thinking about it all the time.
I have like most musicians I talk to, music always playing in my head, as I am thinking about it all the time.
