Possible Futures bookstore and community space
Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m.
Seats are limited, arrive early to claim a chair!
Close your eyes and imagine an apple. Now, open your eyes. Which of the below apples best describes what you just “saw” in your mind’s eye?
If you picked apple 5, you have aphantasia, which is an inability to visualize. Aphants tend to lean towards STEM professions, and often have a poor autobiographical memory. They also tend to get over setbacks easily.
If you picked apple 1, you have hyperphantasia. Hyperphants tend to have vivid inner lives, lean towards the arts, and have trouble getting over setbacks and breakups.
Until recently, scientists had never studied individual variation in imagination. Investigating people’s lived conscious experience was considered the purview of potheads and philosophers. But scientists are now beginning to investigate people’s subjective conscious experience using objective measures, such as brain scans. And they are discovering that there’s more variation in the human experience than anyone ever thought possible.
Join science writers Sadie Dingfelder and Carl Zimmer in a rousing discussion of the new science of subjectivity. Are you an outlier? Is anyone neurotypical? And what does the new NBC show starring Zachary Quinto playing a character based on neurologist Oliver Sacks have to do with all of this?
After their conversation, Sadie will be available to sign Do I Know You? and Carl will sign A Planet of Viruses and She Has Her Mother’s Laugh!