on the imagination




graphic of abstracted neurons intertwined and colorful for the imagination page at hiartx.com



1. The imagination, as it is concerned visually, is the ability to form representations in a vector-based way. It can be thought of otherwise but I do not see how objects of the imagination or objects with which the imagination operates can be said to have a pixel-like resolution because this would mean our mental image of "zooming in" on, say, a round ball would eventually necessarily yield a jagged, pixelated edge.

To think that we are not computers is to misunderstand the nature of computation as well as the nature of the machines we have built around and in mirror of our own mental faculties like mathematics and geometrical manipulation to a potential infinity.

Visual imagination and the capacity for visual imagination can be thought of as a discreet intelligence or ability that can be better in some than others.

The visual imagination and the capacity for both short term memory storage as well as an ability to manipulate imagistic representations quickly and according to known rules or data sets, could be, for instance, qualities required for games like chess or go or scrabble.

1[1]. Chess requires application of simple rules to individual pieces and the resultant combinatorial possibilities must be made aware.

How many possibilities deep one can imagine is the basis for chess aptitude.

This would be thought of as a combinatorial tree, of which, each subsequent branch contains exponentially more than the former.

1[1.1]. In other words, there may be, let's assume, fifty possible moves on a chess board for the black player.

Each possibility yields fifty more possibilities related to that move.

After just one analysis of each move to two levels of complexity, the number of possible moves skyrockets to, perhaps, five-hundred moves.

At three or four levels deep we are talking thousands or tens of thousands of possibilities.

1[1.2]. Games like "Go", the game of black and white ovals on 19x19 intersecting lines, has even simpler rules but the combinatorial complexity dwarfs that of chess.

In scrabble, we have, perhaps the easiest computation of examining available spaces, 7 available letters, and the dictionary of words that can be referenced or scanned to determine the best possible outcome given the scoring composition of the board itself.

1[2]. Complex mathematical operations must be taking place in the deep structure of the mind.

These complex mathematical operations exist to perform functions like zooming in, warping, and other forms of addition and subtraction.

I use the term "vector" because this describes a series of manipulatable points in space rather than a defined resolution such as the "pixels" of a camera lens or, even the way in which we can think of the 2-D image that is represented by the eye's neurons.

1[3]. We are not aware of these mathematic operations just as we are not aware of the controls that regulate hormones and basic organ function.

1[4]. The imagination has both a cartoon-like representative field during normal waking consciousness and a fully immersed visual representation field that mimics reality, in at least appearance and belief, in dreams.

We can represent things against apparent 3D representational space, like a red ball, for instance.

Or, we can imagine ourselves immersed in a particular memory or fantasy.

The more we close our eyes and escape the sensorial environment, the most would be in sleep, the more we can bring our awareness to be engulfed in the memory.

 

 


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