529

Can you rotate an apple in your head? (by Shen) (cdn.imgchest.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.eco.br/post/13513868

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[-] [email protected] 71 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I have a friend at work who openly confessed to not being able to mentally create images when discussing why he wasn't into reading books.

I was like "Wow, I can't really imagine your reality for myself, that sounds strange."

he said, "Now you're getting it, as I can't imagine it, either."

Video games and film though? 1000X more entertaining for him via his testimony. He can't conjure those images so seeing someone else's interpretation is often thrilling.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago

I can't really do that either and I read books.

I also do have an inner monologue which might be a part of it.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Wait are there people without inner monologue?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I don't think I have an inner monologue. Also I have full Aphantasia. I can't visually imagine an apple let alone rotate it in my mind.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Do you have dreams?

[-] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

I do! I visualize when I dream. But I can't do it on command. This is how I realized I probably have aphantasia. I can never consciously visualize. I can think and conceptualize, but not 'see'.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have the exact same experience, from lack of inner monologue to aphantasia. Funnily enough, when I'm on the verge of falling asleep, I can sometimes conjure images, but that's the only way I'm able to

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

yess when I read that this is a common experience for aphants, I became pretty certain I'm an aphant too. crazy how people can do that on command

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

I also have aphantasia. I only learnt about it a year or so ago. It was eye opening when I realised. People used to say "picture this or that" and I thought it was a figure of speech! Turns out there are people who can picture shit.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

it's absolutely wild! I still struggle to imagine how other people can picture things.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Waiiiiit. It's not just a figure of speech?!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

welcome to the rabbit hole!

[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I realized after reading about people with aphantasia that what I do is kind of a combination of visualization and conceptualization. If you ask me to imagine a cow, I'll tend to visualize the cow itself, but it doesn't come with a field for the cow to stand in. The cow is just in the concept of a place. That is, until I concentrate on visualizing details of the place, at which point I'll probably lose the visual of the cow. Like, it's still there, it's just become the concept of a cow.

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Yeah! I don't think I do in the sense some people do, in the sense that some people describe having a narrator or something like that. If I am to think in words or sentences it takes a little more effort and happens when I'm thinking about talking to someone or putting things into words, whereas my passive thinking is generally wordless, and more conceptual/spacial/tactile.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Yes, it's quite wild but I guess I can't really say that as someone without the ability to imagine things.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago

On the other hand, I also can't create images in my head and prefer reading.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

I often find myself getting distracted from whatever I'm watching because my brain takes over and starts making up alternative scenarios.

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

I incidentally visualize a 3D object in my head complete with blender's UI. For some reason that helps

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Now render it with cycles.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Sorry, my brain just crashed

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Have you tried downloading more RAM?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Now I have a fever

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Now do a shiny apple, on a mirror.

[-] [email protected] 38 points 3 days ago

apples are uniquely hard to rotate in your head because apples are bland and uninteresting and nobody's favorite fruit. try rotating a cow instead. it's free and the cops can't stop you

[-] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago

What the fuck did apples do to you to deserve such a scathing review. Are you a doctor?

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Same as the comic, you got to utilize the stem and the leaf, or maybe give it a worm or something

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

You lied to me! I started rotating cows but the cops still arrested me for tax evasion

[-] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

'90s Internet rotating cow GIF now playing in my head.

Me: Hmmmm.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

A talking apple? How novel.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Why do I feel annoyed by this picture?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

I am also annoyed by the POTUS.

[-] [email protected] 52 points 3 days ago

A friend of mine has that condition where she can't visualize things. I wonder how she would like this comic. My guess is she'd crack a joke about it being a good thing she can't do this.

[-] [email protected] 30 points 3 days ago

I developed aphantasia. I used to be able to visualize things and now cannot... EXCEPT for in the first 20-30 minutes after waking up. It is quite disturbing since I only recently realized this, but can't actually tell when the last time I was able to picture or conjure things in my mind visually.

What's crazy is that I have no problem conceptualizing the apple. I am highly capable of imagining it. Not only that, I am a DM for a D&D game that's been going on for nearly a decade - so it has no bearing my creativity. Also, I am an artist and can draw and paint both realistic images as well as stylized or abstract things without problem.

I wish I could see images again. I do like being able to do so after waking up. Perhaps that's how I can exercise the skill and try to extend it.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

Sorta sounds like your job / routine is making you stressed and unable to focus

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This might be it.

I gave up watching the news daily back after the November election. Since then, my creativity has returned.

The only logical thing to do is quit my job so the hallucinations will return.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I can't really imagine the combinations you described.

If someone described a sunset or other vivid cliché, that would spark what in your inner eye?

[-] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

I have something similar. I have to push, extremely hard, mentally. Even then the resultant visualization is weak and fuzzy.

In my mind, the concept and the image are decoupled. I have the concept of an apple. A viewed apple can be matched to it for comparisons. That concept includes all variants. Red, green, yellow, small, large, bpy or smooth. It also doesn't have a view direction built in.

It's a bit like how you can still recognise a cat, when seen from below. You might never have seen it like that, but your model of "catness" includes it. You can mentally render it and compare. My brain just drops the rendering stage as useless fluff.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This comic always freaks me out

Something about those characters is so uncanny

[-] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

My first attempt at rotating an apple in my head after reading this had the apple moving in 4 steps to do a full circle. Now the apple is spinning at a high speed after some more thinking.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

Lol. Im on the autism spectrum. You have no idea the complexity I can visualize and manipulate in my mind. I basically have CAD software in my brain.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago

I've got two kids. I told my older one "you've got a blackboard in your brain, practice making it bigger and making the things you write on it last longer". He says "oh yeah you're right cool".

My younger kid doesn't have one. Just, not there. She has an incredible eye for color and immediately sounds like a native when learning a new language, though, which neither of the other two of us have.

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this post was submitted on 27 May 2025

529 points (96.6% liked)

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