But I don’t relate to people unwillingly imagining an inanimate object to be sentient and emotive to such an intense degree that the imaginer is affected by it. I’ve pondered with purpose over writing metaphors or fantasy worldbuilding, but it has been with intent rather than passively.
I don’t quite understand the distinction you’re making between the former and latter. The only difference I’m seeing is it is something you actively have to do while others can do it passively. If anything, I would think that those do it passively would have a strength.
Break down exactly what is probably happening with your beaker example:
observation of physical traits
pattern matching against other examples of dissimilar sizes
analysis as to why this beaker may have an association with a found pattern match of “parent and offspring”
offspring are often more visually pleasant versions of the grown version (puppy vs dog/kitten vs cat)
apply ruleset of “parent and offspring” to beaker
therefore small beaker is cute because it could be offspring of a pair of larger beakers
This demonstrates there is a willingness to accept the unknown and explore it. It applies existing knowledge to make assumptions about future status/behavior. This is a power fact finding skill. Further, your classmates demonstrated this passively meaning it look no effort to find relationships and identify matching traits. They could possibly discover many things in life simply by looking that them and applying critical thinking.
I understand the connections well enough and I could make them on my own if I saw a purpose to it, such as narrative storytelling or choosing them as representative props.
This is my point “if I saw a purpose” means that you would miss any purposes that would only be evident when the act was complete.
Someone seeing a banal object, devoid of story and history and just merely existing,
There is no object in existence that is devoid of story and history. Everything came from somewhere whether by nature or human intervention.
and then succumbing to emotions
What is the negative outcome of “succumbing to emotions” from your beaker example? What cost is paid? What energy lost that would have been expending elsewhere?
over loose connections to human characteristics is what I don’t relate to. A cigar without narrative purpose is just a cigar.
Just your suggestion of a cigar triggers in me dozens of different threads of thought. Here’s just a few:
agricultural - Tobacco was planted and cultivate, harvested then dried and processed. Tobacco can only be grown in certain places in the world. The cigar itself may have been wrapped by hand.
health - Tobacco has many of the obvious negative health aspects, but a bit fewer with cigars than other tobacco consumption methods
visceral - Cigar smoke does not smell good to me. Its a pungent and then stale. Something to be avoided. Watching smoke rise is fascinating as it drifts with air currents in the room. Cigars weigh much less than I would expect from how they look.
cultural - Some modern cultures have a high integration with cigars, and even some like Cuba, have a national identity surrounding them. In the west they were, at one time, an expected gift for the announcement of a new birth.
historical - Growing tobacco massively changed the world a few times in history, and lead to the enslavement of people in some cases/regions.
The whole thought process that produced that entire list happened to me automatically and was started and ended in less than one second. To me, when someone mentions a cigar any of these things could include additional communications cues to the person or their purpose. Its non-verbal subtext.
I deal with these is recognizing the message when they are used or abused.
Its sort of sounding like somebody got irritated with your creative process when you were a kid, and now you’re trying to reconcile that with other people being allowed to emote and create “for no reason”.
Someone seeing a banal object, devoid of story and history and just merely existing, and then succumbing to emotions over loose connections to human characteristics is what I don’t relate to.
Seeing creativity as “succumbing to emotions” sounds like you think its a bad thing that your parents told you not to do.
It’s a set of qualities (small, eyes too big for head, head too big for body, or an approximation of such in non animal objects) that evokes an emotional response (affectionate, protective, nurturing) which is an evolutionary development that prevents us from eating our succulent babies.
Cute is a stimulus that causes a release of dopamine, which affects our emotions. It’s not uncommon for someone to simplify that by saying cute = emotion.
I always assumed it was more the other way around. I never hear my NT friends etc about feeling sad for the wonky apple in the supermarket to the point that you must buy it, because you know other people will ignore it.
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I feel like it’s the other way around
Have you ever had any kind of emotional reaction, even a mild, one to this lamp?
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I don’t quite understand the distinction you’re making between the former and latter. The only difference I’m seeing is it is something you actively have to do while others can do it passively. If anything, I would think that those do it passively would have a strength.
Break down exactly what is probably happening with your beaker example:
This demonstrates there is a willingness to accept the unknown and explore it. It applies existing knowledge to make assumptions about future status/behavior. This is a power fact finding skill. Further, your classmates demonstrated this passively meaning it look no effort to find relationships and identify matching traits. They could possibly discover many things in life simply by looking that them and applying critical thinking.
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This is my point “if I saw a purpose” means that you would miss any purposes that would only be evident when the act was complete.
There is no object in existence that is devoid of story and history. Everything came from somewhere whether by nature or human intervention.
What is the negative outcome of “succumbing to emotions” from your beaker example? What cost is paid? What energy lost that would have been expending elsewhere?
Just your suggestion of a cigar triggers in me dozens of different threads of thought. Here’s just a few:
The whole thought process that produced that entire list happened to me automatically and was started and ended in less than one second. To me, when someone mentions a cigar any of these things could include additional communications cues to the person or their purpose. Its non-verbal subtext.
I think you may be missing messages.
Its sort of sounding like somebody got irritated with your creative process when you were a kid, and now you’re trying to reconcile that with other people being allowed to emote and create “for no reason”.
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It was this:
Seeing creativity as “succumbing to emotions” sounds like you think its a bad thing that your parents told you not to do.
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Humans will pack bond with anything
Even among neurotypicals there is neurodiversity.
(inb4 IKEA lamp advert)
Cute isn’t an emotion, it’s a visual trait.
It’s a set of qualities (small, eyes too big for head, head too big for body, or an approximation of such in non animal objects) that evokes an emotional response (affectionate, protective, nurturing) which is an evolutionary development that prevents us from eating our succulent babies.
Sometimes people will describe a setting, like a restaurant or part of town, or particular house, as “cute.” No anthropromorphics involved.
Cute is a stimulus that causes a release of dopamine, which affects our emotions. It’s not uncommon for someone to simplify that by saying cute = emotion.
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I always assumed it was more the other way around. I never hear my NT friends etc about feeling sad for the wonky apple in the supermarket to the point that you must buy it, because you know other people will ignore it.