When I imagine configuring an imaginary pile of blocks, I can feel the blocks in front of me in this fake imaginary plane of existence. I feel aware of their spatial relationships to me, in the same way that it feels different to have your eyes closed in a closet vs in an empty auditorium.
But what is this mental workspace? Is it disjoint and separated from my normal spatial awareness, or does my brain copy/paste->modify my real-life spatial awareness. Like, if my brother is five feet in front of me, and then I imagine a blade flying five feet in front of me in my imaginary mental space where he doesn’t exist, do I reflexively flinch? Does my brain overlay these two mental spaces, or are they separate?
I don’t know. When I run the test, I at least flinch at the thought of such a thing happening. This isn’t a good experiment because I know what I’m testing for; I need to think of a better test.
When I imagine configuring an imaginary pile of blocks, I can feel the blocks in front of me in this fake imaginary plane of existence. I feel aware of their spatial relationships to me, in the same way that it feels different to have your eyes closed in a closet vs in an empty auditorium.
But what is this mental workspace? Is it disjoint and separated from my normal spatial awareness, or does my brain copy/paste->modify my real-life spatial awareness. Like, if my brother is five feet in front of me, and then I imagine a blade flying five feet in front of me in my imaginary mental space where he doesn’t exist, do I reflexively flinch? Does my brain overlay these two mental spaces, or are they separate?
I don’t know. When I run the test, I at least flinch at the thought of such a thing happening. This isn’t a good experiment because I know what I’m testing for; I need to think of a better test.