Do you have dreams?

I do! I visualize when I dream. But I can't do it on command. This is how I realized I probably have aphantasia. I can never consciously visualize. I can think and conceptualize, but not 'see'.

I also have aphantasia. I only learnt about it a year or so ago. It was eye opening when I realised. People used to say "picture this or that" and I thought it was a figure of speech! Turns out there are people who can picture shit.

I don't know how a cow looks like directly from the front though. How would you even imagine that??

That's interesting that your brain is capable of it but it just won't. It sounds like it could make a lot of things difficult for you. I spend a lot of my idle time "working" on different problems with projects I have going on and a lot of that involves "constructing" things in my mind. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't do that.

For me, "imagine a circle" is kind of a meaningless instruction until you follow it up with something

Waiiiiit. It's not just a figure of speech?!

I spend a lot of my idle time “working” on different problems with projects I have going on and a lot of that involves “constructing” things in my mind.

I do, too! I guess in a different way though. A lot of aphants like to compare it to a computer that does not have a screen or GUI. The computer is there - also the graphics card, the images, the data - but nothing visual appears in your mind's eye. I would say there are several things that are more difficult for me to do - but surprisingly people with aphantasia function just fine. Otherwise I would have known something is different with me way earlier.

I realized after reading about people with aphantasia that what I do is kind of a combination of visualization and conceptualization. If you ask me to imagine a cow, I'll tend to visualize the cow itself, but it doesn't come with a field for the cow to stand in. The cow is just in the concept of a place. That is, until I concentrate on visualizing details of the place, at which point I'll probably lose the visual of the cow. Like, it's still there, it's just become the concept of a cow.

A talking apple? How novel.

welcome to the rabbit hole!

I've noticed my brain lately has been doing this thing where I'm watching something cool and it goes, "hey, wouldn't it be cool if <exact thing I'm watching>?"

Well, yeah, but why are you activating the "I have a cool variant idea related to this" pathways and distracting me instead of just watching how this one plays out?

Edit: corrected "largely" to "lately"

Why do I feel annoyed by this picture?

Try doing it diagonally with a wobble.

A cow is too complicated, I would rather rotate a banana. I'm actually doing that right now, just rotating a banana in my head.

I am also annoyed by the POTUS.

And there's nothing we can do to stop you!

How would you even imagine that??

I would imagine a cow, directly from the front. Or maybe starting with the side on, then slowly rotating so it's facing my minds eye.

Oh dear, it looks angry!

Same. I also like to study floorplans of places and "walk around", exploring it in my mind.

Same as the comic, you got to utilize the stem and the leaf, or maybe give it a worm or something