Gaming and Hyperphantasia

[tcpip]

Sunday's gaming session was GURPS Middle Earth; our GM has been running games around the Lake Town region using a European dark ages millieu, specifically the Baltic-Germanic regions. The scenarios have been taken from Harn, which actually has some of its own fascinating tie-ins with Middle-Earth - and which does quite well in portraying magic as an elaboration of reality rather than a replacement, not quite as subtle as magical realism, but along the same trajectory. Afterwards we had a brief meeting of the RPG Review Cooperative committee; not too much to report to be honest. With the exception of the library, which really has been quite a success with a couple of generous donations, the Coop had fallen into doing 'more of the same' in recent weeks, something which really must be amended if we're going to keep up some momentum. The absence of a couple of committee members on work-related activities hasn't helped.

Spent today off work, with a throat cold - didn't want to infect my workmates. Took it easy and have mostly recovered, so I should be fit for tomorrow. The most interesting event of the day was receiving correspondence from Exeter University's neuroscience research group concerning Aphantasia - I'm on the other end of the scale. When asked about a particular mundane subject my mental imagery is often more vivid than reality. It certainly explains my tastes in art (surrealism), writing and movies (magical realism) etc. On a philosophical level, I find that it is yet another nail in the coffin of those who argue that consciousness can be reduced to individual brains.

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

On a philosophical level, I find that it is yet another nail in the coffin of those who argue that consciousness can be reduced to individual brains.

Hm. Well, if you say so. Still, either way it's probably best to avoid bumping the brain on anything.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Necessary but not sufficient.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I'd say that would depend a fair bit on what precisely meant by "reduced to individual brains", but I think I can see where you're coming from with that.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Conveniently I encountered this just an hour ago.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/human-brain-consciousness-episodic-memory-personal-narrative-social-structure-384757

To use a tortured metaphor, for consciousness brains provide the hardware, language provides the software, which we require from other people. Individual brains themselves won't cut it.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I imagine being plugged into a sensory organ or two would also help our poor hypothetical brain along? The individual brain does seem... poorly equipped... for consciousness.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Sure, to follow with the metaphor, the brain is the CPU, memory, and storage. It needs I/O devices to receive and transmit information.

IIRC Dreyfus followed the "embodied sensory" argument in What Computers Still Can't Do

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

I agree with your point about the brain processing information. I enjoyed the article http://www.medicaldaily.com/human-brain-consciousness-episodic-memory-personal-narrative-social-structure-384757 which contained, "Some people, particularly in philosophy, are not convinced that the brain does create consciousness, although in the field of neuroscience, this is the generally accepted belief."

I feel so glad that there are other brains around, such as yourself and zenicurean, to help construct reality and consciousness. It really does take at least a village, if not a planet, to get thought off the ground.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

My individual brain is glad to be of service!

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

The GURPS campaign sounds delightful. I've never played Harn but it sounds intricately detailed and rich.

The aphantasia quiz was fun. I'd never before imagined people being unable to visualize. I bet tabletop RPG would likely have close to zero appeal to those with the aphantasia characteristic.

I hope your throat cold is much mended.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

> I've never played Harn but it sounds intricately detailed and rich.

It really is quite an impressive exploration; the maps in particular are a joy in the simulation of medieval cartography.

> I'd never before imagined people being unable to visualize. I bet tabletop RPG would likely have close to zero appeal to those with the aphantasia characteristic.

It was a surprise to me as well to discover that such people existed. A tabletop RPG would have a different appeal I suppose; the player would be more interested in the how the rules fitted together with the setting information, rather than visualise the shared imaginary space.

> I hope your throat cold is much mended.

Eventually! It was head and throat and pretty well knocked me out for three days.