Ok-Variety-8135 t1_jdwuyx5 wrote on March 27, 2023 at 7:51 PM

I think we are not directly generating words, more like generating virtual hearing. Also we can generating virtual vision when solving geometry problems, virtual taste when thinking about foods, virtual touch feeling when thinking about sex.

So basically a multimodal LLM that use generated sensations to model a “mental world” and use the mental world to predict the real world to maximize chance of survival.

The language plays a key role because it allows us to think beyond our personal experience. Which distinguishes us from animals.

flexaplext OP t1_jdxc3bh wrote on March 27, 2023 at 9:42 PM

I actually can't do those things. As part of aphantasia I can't generate virtual vision, virtual taste, virtual smell or virtual touch at all.

I can only generate virtual sound in my head.

This is why I can say those other mental modes are not necessarily at all to thinking and conciousness. Because I know that I'm conscious and thinking without them and I still would be without any input from my real senses. But obviously my sensory input have been completely vital to learning.

Yomiel94 t1_jdy0yc3 wrote on March 28, 2023 at 12:43 AM

How do you intuit mathematical concepts?

flexaplext OP t1_jdydx39 wrote on March 28, 2023 at 2:19 AM

Just hold it all in memory. My mental arithmetic and manipulation is actually rather decent, despite not being able to visualise it. You actually find that this applies to most people with aphantasia. There's lots of interesting things about it if you search and read up on people's perceptions and experience of it.

It's strange to describe.

Because I know exactly what something like a graph looks like, without being able to visualise it. Just by holding all the information about a graph in memory. I can manipulate that information by simply changing the information of the graph.

However, this ability does break down with more complex systems. If I try and hold an entire chess board in memory and manipulate it, I just fail completely. It's too much information for me to keep in memory and work out accurately without a visual aid.