[ExI] Bandwidth of Information Gleaning

[Jef Allbright]

On 5/4/07, Anne Corwin <sparkle_robot at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jef said:
>
> "For example, my thinking is extremely visual/analytical (I actually think
> in terms of graphs and geometric shapes)
>
> My thinking is...difficult to describe.  It is strongly visually biased, but
> I'm also prone to synesthesia, so there's some degree of sensory mixing in
> there as well.  Graphs and shapes and diagrams definitely feature
> prominently, though -- frequently, even writing for me is a process of
> "looking" at the diagrams in my mind's eye and attempting to describe them
> as best as possible.  My brain seems to operate in "layers", wherein the
> most basic cognitive layer is largely non-linguistic.  The layer on top of
> that is quasi-linguistic -- that is, there are a lot of words there, but
> they don't necessarily represent anything.
>
> Then the layer on top of *that* is linguistic -- when I am writing, I am
> basically "pulling" concepts up from the basic cognitive layer through the
> quasi-linguistic layer and fashioning them into something with some chance
> of being understood by someone who isn't me.  And the linguistic layer is
> very text-biased as opposed to speech-biased; text gets "in" and "out" more
> easily than speech does.  But the right diagram or graph has the potential
> to bypass the linguistic layer(s) entirely.  Which is always nice.

I had hoped for enhanced visual communication in Second Life when I
joined more than two years ago. I imagined being able to pop up
visuals over my head to let the other person know what I was
visualizing in my mind.  Most would be prepared in advance, for common
concepts that are difficult to describe in words.  Some would be
created dynamically, from changing data on the web (such as economic,
socio-political, quality of life data, etc.), and other graphs and
charts could be created on the fly from particular instance data.
Animations to show change, 3D models for added dimensionality.  I also
dreamed of having a shared whiteboard to pop up whenever it might be
handy.  Still dreams at this time, and experiments to be performed to
determine whether such visuals would be of much value to those who are
less visual thinkers.  Would a more kinesthetic person benefit from
walking around inside a graph, climbing or flying over towering bars
or walking on a surface plot as if it were a trampoline?

Further on the topic of visualization, when I'm in a discussion with
someone I find that a part of my brain automatically plots a graph of
their worldview (that I'm receiving from them) onto my worldview
(internal.)  To the extent that our views are congruent, the graph
forms a straight line.  Any discontinuities or curves in the graph
prompt me to look in that area for contradictions or differences in
our views.  Very handy and effortless, but perhaps quite unusual.  I'd
be very interested to know of others' similar experiences.

- Jef