iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 08/10/2026

Here’s an odd aphantasia effect. I’ve noticed that when I’m typing an infrequently used word, I can’t tell if it’s misspelled until I actually see it typed out… then it becomes obvious that it’s wrong. Any other aphantasics notice this?

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 27/09/2026

Anosognosiac, or oblivious come to mind. But neither is very specific…

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 04/09/2026

I have to double check every time I see "someone who looks like someone else." I've said to my wife [some person] looks like [X movie star] and she'll say not at all. If I look at pictures of both, I have to agree. But SOMETHING is similar between them...

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 22/08/2026

It's less kinky with Imperial measurements...

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 22/08/2026

I certainly do. I like very descriptive writing - Thomas Hardy and Nathaniel Hawthorne were favorites of mine. Without highly descriptive text, I'd have to conjure images using my mind's eye. But it's blind, so the text will have to do!

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 20/08/2026

Yes, I have to constantly refer to the map. I can generally know which direction I’m going, but I can’t imagine the map in my mind.

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 20/08/2026

I don’t have many close friends - probably because when people are out of sight, they’re out of mind. The upsides seem to be that it’s easier to leave relationships, and it makes grieving easier…

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 19/08/2026

I have an issue related to aphantasia called SDAM (Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory) that has a much greater impact on everyday life. I can't "relive" memories - for me memories are mostly just lists of facts. Also, when people are not around, it's as if they don't exist. It's frustrating.

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 19/08/2026

(I'm aphantasic, BTW) How it affects my everyday life? Visualization is impossible, so when someone says "imagine X", I just check out. Meditation doesn't mean visualizing a "happy place" for me. I just concentrate on breath or an internal chant or mantra.

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 19/08/2026

I'm generally pretty good with maps - I've done enough hiking that I can follow trail maps pretty well.

200

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 16/08/2026

I have aphantasia (completely blank mind's eye) but I do have a very vivid internal voice (as I type this I hear the letters as I type them.)

011

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 16/07/2026

Not directly related to aphantasia, but still perhaps of interest might be The Impostor Phenomenon by Pauline Rose Clance.

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 30/06/2026

I have SDAM, so my memories are mostly just facts. Some pictures - ones that I've seen often - have more facts attached to them, but I think many of these were "loaned" to me from family and others who have described the photo.

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 30/06/2026

There's a (somewhat) related "condition" called SDAM (Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory) - basically, the inability to "relive" memories. I have this and it informs a lot of my relationships. I forget people when they're out of sight. Makes it easy to move on from old relationships...

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 30/06/2026

I hear myself reading the text. In fact as I type this I "hear" the letters (and sometimes words) as I type them.

020

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 25/06/2026

I didn’t learn what it was called more than a couple of years ago.

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 24/06/2026

Ich habe SDAM schon mein ganzes Leben lang (soweit ich zurückdenken kann). Das bringt sowohl Vorteile als auch Probleme mit sich ...

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 20/06/2026

Studies that support this hypothesis?

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 18/06/2026

It has benefits and drawbacks…

121

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 17/06/2026

I have SDAM and just don't have the kind of memories that 'let' me relive trauma. All my childhood trauma are just lists of facts, with no conscious pain attached to them. I feel lucky... But, this also means that all my relationships are memories of facts and dates. I just forget people.

230

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 10/05/2026

I have a completely dark mind’s eye, but I can imagine music and hear a voice when I read. (For example, I “hear” the letters as I type this.)

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 08/05/2026

Loved walking through the Yorkshire Dales on the Coast-to-Coast hike last autumn! Great shots!

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 08/05/2026

I joke that we’re cousins…

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 07/05/2026

I'm aphantasic (complete blackness when I try to imagine anything.) I think this is why memory-mansion techniques don't work for me. Nothing to hang memories on...

120

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 21/04/2026

Bob Hartley used to walk by Marina City every day!

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 10/04/2026

My wife is that way and has vivid hyperphantasia. I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum with aphantasia and SDAM. Makes for interesting conversations!

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 09/04/2026

Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. (Memória Autobiográfica Severamente Deficiente.)

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 09/04/2026

Ok use photography and journaling to remember places I’ve visited (I have aphantasia and SDAM.)

020

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 09/04/2026

That’s an interesting perspective.

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 09/04/2026

Alguns de nós também têm SDAM, o que pode ser considerado um dom ou uma maldição….

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 02/04/2026

I found that journaling is the only way for me to remember a lot of stuff. When we travel/hike I take lots of pictures and at the end of each day, I post an account of what went on that day with pictures - it helps me organize memories that would otherwise be lost - like tears in raln.

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 02/04/2026

....Oh, and it turns out that 25-50% of people with aphantasia also have SDAM.

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 02/04/2026

I have aphantasia and SDAM. My spouse says it explains a lot about me - and I agree. I found it a bit of a relief to find out and realize "Oh, that's why..."

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 01/04/2026

I honestly thought that it could be “fair-use” - but I was obviously wrong…

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 01/04/2026

I used song lyrics in a number of chapter titles in a draft until an editor told me, “don’t do that.”

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 01/04/2026

I’d love to share this, but not enough to solicit my friends to subscribe…

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 29/03/2026

yep, for me, dream and hypnogogic visuals are a thing, but I can't consciously visualize anything.

020

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 26/03/2026

As long as there are no effective sanctions, he knows he can do whatever he likes with impunity.

140

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

Nothing other than memorization through repetition (verbally, but in my head.) I tried mnemonic devices and they work sometimes... For me, just memorizing the facts seems simplest.

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

I was looking for data on this a while back. It turns out that autistic people are something like 3-4 times more likely to report aphantasia or than non-autistic peers.

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

I tried for years but always ended up with a semantic list instead of a palace. A few years ago I found out I have aphantasia and that's why I was failing at memory palaces.

110

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

I swear it took a half hour for me to remember the term "passive aggressive" yesterday. My memory has always been pretty good (semantic memory.) So I chalk it up to being past 70...

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

I've said that so many times about actresses and actors, and my wife invariably says "They don't look anything alike..." It's usually the eyes or the cheekbones or something... I still can't tell the Ryan's apart...

100

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 14/03/2026

Do you think your packing ability is intuitive or analytical?

000

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 13/03/2026

Mostly semantic - I remember plotlines/threads, facts, environmental settings. I'm terrible with names of characters (and the actors who play them...)

111

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 06/03/2026

And I "hear" words when I read or type them. In fact as I type this sentence, I hear the letters in my mind as I type them.

010

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 06/03/2026

Our first corporate e-mail system was CompuServe back in 1980 - we moved it in-house a few years later. I remember getting a bill for a forum that I played with for hours, not knowing I was being charged by the minute...

020

Mark C. Amos @amos-family.com · 05/03/2026

I'm aphantasic (with SDAM) and I spent my career in IT (mostly in operations and security - I retired from a DevOps position.)

010