Why not? Sure, you might start to recurse and distract yourself if you try to picture the process as a series of iterative steps, just as building any other kind of infinite data structure would—but that’s what declarative data structure definitions were made for. :)
Instead of actually trying to construct each new label as you experience it, simply picture the sum total of your current attention as a digraph. Then, when you experience something, you add a label to the graph (pointing to the “real” experience, which isn’t as easily visualized as the label—I picture objects in a scripting language’s object space holding references to raw C structs here.) When you label the label itself, you simply attach a new label (‘labelling’) which points to the previous label, but also points to itself (a reflexive edge.) This would be such a regular occurrence of the graph that it would be easier to just visualize such label nodes as being definitionally attached to root labels, and thus able to be left out of any mental diagram in the same way Hydrogen is left out of the diagrams of organic molecules.
Actually, that brings up an interesting point—is the labelling process suggested here inherently subvocally-auditory? Can we visualize icons representing our experiences rather than subvocalizing words representing them, or does switching from Linear to Gestalt#Polis_time.2C_delta.2C_and_perception) change the effect this practice has on executive function?
Actually, that brings up an interesting point—is the labelling process suggested here inherently subvocally-auditory? Can we visualize icons representing our experiences rather than subvocalizing words representing them, or does switching from Linear to Gestalt change the effect this practice has on executive function?
I’m not in a good position to comment on how effective various methods are for learning to go from stage one to stage four, since stage four is my default state, but using visual representations works fine for me, and I expect it’d work for anyone who’s used to thinking in a visual rather than word-based format in any other context. Using a gestalt might be too distracting for most people to start with, though, and may be slightly more dangerous.
Why not? Sure, you might start to recurse and distract yourself if you try to picture the process as a series of iterative steps, just as building any other kind of infinite data structure would—but that’s what declarative data structure definitions were made for. :)
Instead of actually trying to construct each new label as you experience it, simply picture the sum total of your current attention as a digraph. Then, when you experience something, you add a label to the graph (pointing to the “real” experience, which isn’t as easily visualized as the label—I picture objects in a scripting language’s object space holding references to raw C structs here.) When you label the label itself, you simply attach a new label (‘labelling’) which points to the previous label, but also points to itself (a reflexive edge.) This would be such a regular occurrence of the graph that it would be easier to just visualize such label nodes as being definitionally attached to root labels, and thus able to be left out of any mental diagram in the same way Hydrogen is left out of the diagrams of organic molecules.
Actually, that brings up an interesting point—is the labelling process suggested here inherently subvocally-auditory? Can we visualize icons representing our experiences rather than subvocalizing words representing them, or does switching from Linear to Gestalt#Polis_time.2C_delta.2C_and_perception) change the effect this practice has on executive function?
I’m not in a good position to comment on how effective various methods are for learning to go from stage one to stage four, since stage four is my default state, but using visual representations works fine for me, and I expect it’d work for anyone who’s used to thinking in a visual rather than word-based format in any other context. Using a gestalt might be too distracting for most people to start with, though, and may be slightly more dangerous.