Originally posted by revesz
when we see we can understand what we are looking at, we can also visualize what it is that we have seen if we commit it to memory.
Of course, because visualizing something
is memory in action. Even visualizations of ideas we've never directly experienced are the combination of geometric experience.
But why do we visualize our thoughts only to the front of us?
Because we only experience objects from that viewpoint, and memory is the replaying of experience. Since we only experience the geomtric world through the 2D surfaces of structures in the visual cortex, we can only imagine things from a 2D perspective.
for example visualize a train moving through your mind, do you see it right in front of you? well i have found difficulty seeing images or thoughts anywhere but where my eyes can see. Any point beyond my perefrial vision i can't visualize on.
That is a harder question, because how visualizations and actual experiences interact is tricky. You can imagine the train, but what about the actual thing you are looking at? Does the train block out what would be behind it, as a real train would? I think they both go through the same filters in the brain and are processed in the same location as well. But but if one can imagine a solid like a train without being obstructed from seeing anything behind it, I have to wonder if there is any spatial relation at all.
Is it possible to visualize in 3dimentions?
This is certainly a no, coming from 2 sources of evidence. First off, we are certain from our experience that vision is 2 dimensional. Take any image of any object and you can locate anything on it with only X,Y coordinates. Second, data from the outside world provided by science reveals that the brain can only process 2D images received from the retina. Actually, this is the logical result of how the retina can receive light traveling in 3 dimensions. As such it is physically impossible for someone to imagine things in 3 dimensions. That why I laugh when someone claims to be able to picture a 4 spatial dimension, as they are either delluded or literally from another universe.
and what would our thoughts be like without sight?
Probably memories and assembled memories of our other experiences - touch, smell, taste, sound, emotions, etc.
