Shared Imaginary Space - Finally! This is Your Brain...
As I understand brain / mind research, it works like this: you brain creates an internal model of what's going on around you. This model has a kind of scaling factor (more on that later) that suggests a level of detail and information. Now, when you experience something, the stimuli are interpreted into changes in the model. This often calls for a certain loss of detail in the process.
For example, say you're driving down the street at a fair clip. Your internal model will reflect the street, any obstacles (like parked cars or pedestrians) and other cars. Since you're speeding at the moment, the houses around you aren't of any interest beyond colouring your model as 'in a neighborhood.' If you're really driving too fast, other cars will be simplified to just 'car' or 'red car.'
Now, when you come to a stoplight, you model expands (scales down as it were). You notice the red car in front of you is a hatchback with rust around the license plate and wheel wells, you see that there is a hardware store on the corner and some children walking on the broken sidewalk parallel to you. You've basically dropped from 'racing' scale to 'personal' scale (the scale you might model when walking).
Let's say that the radio in your car mentions something that's happening in Shanghai, for a moment your senses are ignored and you scale up to 'world economics' level, considering how what happened in Shanghai affects you personally (which scaled up is, 'the country you live in'). Next your cell phone rings and you speak to your boss about where you are. You scale to a 'private' meeting level where you are your job and benefits; your boss wants a status report on a project which you model as a single unit (rather than the numerous tasks that make it up).
Now the light changes and you missed it, your model has to suddenly shift scales again.
...On Dreams
When you dream, this model is active once again. But things are much, much stranger. You find yourself scaled to talking with your boss again. A passing thought makes you scale down to 'personal' level and you really look at your boss. The thing is, this isn't really happening, so your brain picks out some random memory (usually a more familiar or favorite one) that matches 'boss @ personal scale.' Suddenly you realize your boss is standing there in the silly looking golfing outfit he wore last year. This makes you think about clothing and you 'look' down. Now your brain fishes up a memory at an even lower scale, kind of an 'internal profile.' Lucky you, it's remembering the last time you looked into a mirror prior to showering; you're naked! But somehow it doesn't bother you to be naked in front of your boss; it's a dream after all.
Okay, I've spent some time theorizing about all this and I believe that the brain stores these 'model components' like individual packets of information. When dreaming, rather than relying on sensing what's out there and comparing it with what you expect (before adding it to your internal model), your brain just grabs one of these that is most easy or interesting for it to bring up.
...On Role-Playing Gaming
To take this back to gaming, when someone says, "You see a grassy field with a shining castle in the distance," each person at the table focuses on an 'artificial' internal model composed of packets that the words implied. This means that no two of them are the same, yet none of them violate the terms they were communicated in. Mine may be a ruined gothic castle and yours might resemble Neuschwanstein, but they're both castles. As play moves into this landscape, like normal internal modeling, the mind interprets what is communicated into its internal model. (Yes, miscommunication can lead to conflicting models when your model matches what is said, but the speaker assumed some implications that you didn't get.)
You can see how the neuro-typical mind is well-equipped for role-playing gaming in this way.
A long time ago, I coined a phrase for this 'meeting of the minds.' I called the terms which everyone assimilated into each of their internal models, Shared Imaginary Space. Ah the hubris of youth; I thought it was relatively clear what I meant, but inventorying the discussions on this topic make it clear that a certain amount of social capital was up for grabs for whomever could establish themselves as 'right' about it. I want to discuss role-playing games without the battle over 'rightness' social capital.
Anyway, I've always liked the GNS (but not Ron Edwards' Big Model) for the way it talks about consistent goal-based action within the Shared Imaginary Space. I'm really fascinated by Moyra Turkington's Socket Theory for how it talks about what the individual brings to the Shared Imaginary Space and what they look to get from it. But these only scratch the surface.....
F
p.s. No, I haven't read any of the research on the brain I refer to. I don't know any of the actual terms. I haven't a clue if I'm even understanding the ideas as researched. All I'm doing is basing the lay-understandings I've been given on the experiences I've had. Your Mileage May Vary!
p.p.s. I hate YMMV; it reminds me too much of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH. I don't go there. :)
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fang_langford) wrote,
Typical
