>From: "altamira" <altamira@ecpi.com>
>Subject: human/world interfaces
>Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 13:10:24 -0500
>
>In going through the list archives I came upon a thread which began as a
>discussion of "multiple intelligences" and evolved through mathematical
>ability and on to the ability to form visual images from memory. Later,
>after I'd subscribed to the list, I rambled on about my weird way of
>interfacing with the world and some people commented on my apparent
>synethesia (eg. I see leaves swirling from a tree in the fall, and the
>sight
>of the leaves falling is translated in my mind into music and often touch
>as
>well, as though I'm feeling the swirl of the leaves against my skin). At
>the time, I hadn't read the earlier thread, so I didn't know if other
>people
>would be interested in this sort of stuff; so I didn't say anything more at
>the time. Now that I know there's an interest, I'd like to open the
>discussion up again.
>
>My original reason for being interested in the human/world interface is
>self-curiosity. I realized from an early age that my mind didn't work like
>other people's, and that as a result it was hard for me to communicate with
>them, and I've often felt lonely. When I was a kid I thought I'd been put
>on
>the wrong planet by mistake, and when I heard stories of UFO's, I hoped one
>would come and get me and take me to my proper home.
There's a science fiction novel whose title I've forgotten - Something like
".... (maybe Saving) Saint Germ" which deals with precisely what you're
saying. Female author, recent...... Rather nice.
>
>Later, I expanded my selfish motivations to include the possibility of
>improving my communications skills. If I could figure out how most people
>interfaced with the world, I'd be able to imagine how it felt to be them,
>and then I'd stand a better chance of saying the right things to them. I
>don't mean right as in politically correct but rather, right as in "not
>crazy." (people used to say of me that I was off in my own little
>god-knows-where world)(my brother once suggested that I might be a
>"high-functioning" autistic, but I don't think I quite fit that category
>either)
>
>[the following from message sent to extropian list by altamira 6/17/00]
>
>for example, looking at clouds and seeing hundreds of different shades of
>white and at the same time hearing (in one's mind) all these shades of
>white
>translated into corresponding frequencies of sound; or listening to the
>rumbling of a machine and suddenly hearing intensely beautiful music in the
>combination of sounds and seeing (in the mind) the sounds translated into
>something like graphs of mathematical functions, weaving in and out of each
>other.
>
I think that some of this is simply the willingness to allow ones mind to
produce those permutations. It takes an act of will - for me, at least.
However, my recollection is that mariuana vastly enhanced the ease of doing
that sort of thing - both for me and for the people with whom I otherwise
might have found rather dull.
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