Really enjoyed Dr. Nemeth's last post re pictures, reading
and vision. there are many wise words here.
However, I beg to differ on a few minutiae. First, I believe that
the ability to interpret pictures is learned just as is any
other skill. Dr. Nemeth's examples of trying to interpret the
diagram of a DNA molecule or a photo of deep space show this
clearly. However, I will conceed that the ability is learned
very early and that one need not be human to possess it -- dogs
and cats respond to images on television. The key here is that
it is relatively easy to fool the eye and that a good bit of
picture interpretation (as with reality interpretation) dependns upon one's
expericnes and one's consequent ability to classify what one sees
into known categories to which one can put names: fire engine,
microwave oven, lady, the Andromeda Nebula, etc.
Second, I read with interest Dr. Nemeth's description of his "mind's-eye"
view of the world. By contrast, when I do math, I picture the
Nemeth code under my fingers; since I first used an Optacon to
read a computer screen, I picture what's on a screen as this
godawful agglomeration of Braille and print symbols under my left
index finger. In picturing real objects such as a car, I
picture it from an aerial view so that one sees all of the object,
not an occluded object as a sighted person sees it.
If we're not careful here, we'll get into metaphysics <grin>.
-- Mike Freeman | Internet: mikef@pacifier.com GEnie: M.FREEMAN11 | Amateur Radio Callsign: K7UIJ ... "Innovation is hard to schedule." -- Dan Fylstra
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