How mentally constructed is space?
Hey everyone, i wanted to ask a bit of a weird thought experiment which involves physical space. to be clear about the title, im not so much talking about solipsism or that space is literally created by our mind. i mean more like, is our understanding of space contingent on seemingly unrelated things?
basically, for example, what if there was no motion at all? not a mostly still universe, i mean a completely still one. but life still exists somehow. yet motion doesnt exist. i think for a creature there to see something move, it would almost be like a 4th dimension situation, it just wouldnt make any sense. how could they comprehend "what if that thing stopped being where it is, and traveled to that other location"? in fact, what if their ignorance ran even deeper? could they understand the counter factual of "what if that thing was actually over there"? one would think even if theyre still, they have space and, even if they dont move, they can grasp BEING in different places since they are where they are. inhabiting a location is not foreign to them, so they can imagine physically being somewhere else. but maybe not! maybe they DONT perceive space as we do. what is space to us? i mean on earth, not out there.. space is empty, it's a medium to walk thru, it's potential, a place things could be. but on a 2d painting, there is no empty space. every pixel is filled. even emptiness has form. any presence is merely illusory. maybe to a still organism, space is like that. no more "accessible" than a solid wall, and thus, no more unique, novel, different, or worth discriminating. sort of like a fish doesnt know water till it sees land thing.
what do you guys think? does the idea seem interesting to you, or does it seem like im entirely grasping at straws? are there other things that you think, if we didnt have them, would unexpectedly impact other parts of perception?
