I have just listened to the newest episode of the Serious Inquiry Only, which is about how peoples’ brains work differently.
… because one of your beloved hosts of SIO does not! Needless to say, this was a mind blowing realization to that person. We talk about the extraordinary differences in human internal experience, and some of the current science and philosophy on the topic.
In the podcast, one of the hosts, Thomas Smith, said that people with neither an internal monologue nor a mind’s eye must be philosophical zombies.
As I understand the podcast, having an internal monologue means that there is an auditory aspect to peoples’ thought process, where they hear their thoughts as voices, either their own or someone else’s.
You might have guessed it from my description and the post’s headline, but I don’t have an internal monologue. Nor do I have a mind’s eye (I just learned that not haven’t a mind’s eye is called aphantasia,I have just always said that I’m not visual).
This means that, for me:
- An earworm is just a song that I instantly recognize
- I don’t visualize characters in books
- I don’t read dialogue in the voice of the characters/people
- For me, picture this/visualize this is just a metaphor for thinking about some
It also means for me that most memorizing techniques doesn’t work for me, since they often require the ability to visualize things.
What it doesn’t mean:
- I am unable to make figures and diagrams that are useful
Quite contrary, I often make quite clear and useful diagrams/figures, since I have to think about how to communicate through them than people who make them “on the fly”.
- I don’t enjoy reading
I have always read a lot, and I enjoy well written books. Unlike what some might think, I can also be affected emotionally by books.
- I can’t improvise speeches and writing
On the rare occasions where I am giving a speech, I usually note a couple of subjects that I need to cover, and then improvise from there. When writing for my blog, I only have a faint outline of what I want to cover, before starting to read the blogpost.
Having listening to the podcast, I did realize that there probably is a connection between my lack of inner monologue, and why I don’t particular sing along songs. I much prefer to listen to the artists doing the singing, and I don’t have a inner monologue pushing me to open my own voice.
Feel free to ask questions about how my thinking process work, but do remember that I don’t have a shared experience with most of you, so I can’t describe the differences, just how I experience it.