You know, this concept fits rather well with the idea I’m playing with right now of educational games that try to implicitly teach useful kinds of synesthesia.
In chess move notation ”?!” indicates an interesting but probably dubious move whereas ”!?” indicates an interesting and probably fruitful move (more or less). It’d be cool if we could import this into LW lingo somehow.
It’s like the difference between “Huh! Eh...” and “Huh! Um, hm; hmmm...”.
Also, ! is a good move, ? is a poor move, !! is a brilliant move and ?? is a straight-up blunder (which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an obvious blunder; non-pros make at least a few moves in most games that pros would consider to be blunders, especially in the endgame). It’s a good language for quickly talking about differences of opinion about the motivatedness of an idea or conceptual attack. Someone might think one of your moves is ? where you think it’s !?, or ?? instead of ?!, or !! instead of !?. It’s not uncommon for moves you initially think are ?! to end up being ? or ?? upon further examination. Initially !?-seeming moves tend both ways.
I’m basically starting from the assumption that it’s possible for at least some small fraction of the population to acquire new synesthesthesia modes—that seems plausible to me, though I’ve never seen it addressed directly in the literature. (Which may be a failure of the technical definition of synesthesia, which seems to define it as something that a synesthete has always experienced.) As to actual methods, it depends on what exactly is being taught, but I expect it will mostly boil down to presenting the concepts and the qualia together repeatedly, and then slowly phasing out the concepts while expecting the user to keep reacting as if the concepts were being presented. (E.g. if a circle this size is ‘2’, and you’re shown two 2-sized circles and a plus sign, return ‘4’.) I’d like to really push the envelope on that count—I actually have concept → shape/color and relationship → color/movement synesthesia, which are both very useful and would be incredible to be able to teach, but something a bit more modest, like number → sound or number → beat speed, might be a better starting point, especially for proof-of-concept purposes.
I had not previously encountered information about the serotonin connection. This may explain why I reacted so very poorly when I was put on antidepressants. (Also possibly why melatonin makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a bus the next day.)
LSD is unlikely to be useful for this purpose, but the melatonin information might be. Thank you!
You know, this concept fits rather well with the idea I’m playing with right now of educational games that try to implicitly teach useful kinds of synesthesia.
*steals*
!?
Say more?
In chess move notation ”?!” indicates an interesting but probably dubious move whereas ”!?” indicates an interesting and probably fruitful move (more or less). It’d be cool if we could import this into LW lingo somehow.
It’s like the difference between “Huh! Eh...” and “Huh! Um, hm; hmmm...”.
Also, ! is a good move, ? is a poor move, !! is a brilliant move and ?? is a straight-up blunder (which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an obvious blunder; non-pros make at least a few moves in most games that pros would consider to be blunders, especially in the endgame). It’s a good language for quickly talking about differences of opinion about the motivatedness of an idea or conceptual attack. Someone might think one of your moves is ? where you think it’s !?, or ?? instead of ?!, or !! instead of !?. It’s not uncommon for moves you initially think are ?! to end up being ? or ?? upon further examination. Initially !?-seeming moves tend both ways.
Edited accordingly.
Haha! Thanks.
I’m basically starting from the assumption that it’s possible for at least some small fraction of the population to acquire new synesthesthesia modes—that seems plausible to me, though I’ve never seen it addressed directly in the literature. (Which may be a failure of the technical definition of synesthesia, which seems to define it as something that a synesthete has always experienced.) As to actual methods, it depends on what exactly is being taught, but I expect it will mostly boil down to presenting the concepts and the qualia together repeatedly, and then slowly phasing out the concepts while expecting the user to keep reacting as if the concepts were being presented. (E.g. if a circle this size is ‘2’, and you’re shown two 2-sized circles and a plus sign, return ‘4’.) I’d like to really push the envelope on that count—I actually have concept → shape/color and relationship → color/movement synesthesia, which are both very useful and would be incredible to be able to teach, but something a bit more modest, like number → sound or number → beat speed, might be a better starting point, especially for proof-of-concept purposes.
In three parts. LSD and melatonin can induce synesthesia.
O.O
I had not previously encountered information about the serotonin connection. This may explain why I reacted so very poorly when I was put on antidepressants. (Also possibly why melatonin makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a bus the next day.)
LSD is unlikely to be useful for this purpose, but the melatonin information might be. Thank you!
That’s really cool; any progress towards a demo?