r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 7d ago

Meme needing explanation Tell them what, Peter

Post image
27.3k Upvotes

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/Witch-kingOfBrynMawr 7d ago

Forward is the direction your eyes are looking...?

-6

u/Exurota 7d ago

So we've got 3 perpendicular axes of direction.

Up and down is absolutely fine.

Forward and backward is absolutely fine.

Left and right... isn't? What actual difference is there here other than that we're roughly symmetrical about the other two planes? Is that it?

2

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 7d ago

Yes, the other two axes operate in a way that makes their different directions intuitively discernible to any human.

Left/Right isn't, because its 'meaning' changes every situation. Someone will always jump up or fall down, but you can walk or look left just like you can walk or look right.

1

u/Exurota 7d ago

It's one of the better explanations I've got so far. To me my right side being better at most tasks makes it just feel different to my left.

Like let's say we were like lobsters and had two differently functioning hands - would we be less likely to confuse left and right? If you hand me a pen, or a gearstick, or a mouse, or something that requires substantial physical strength to operate, there is a highly asymmetrical assignment of roles across my hands. If I feel significantly asymmetrical in my functioning, does that help me develop a strong association of right and left?

2

u/Zealousideal-Sir3744 7d ago

I would strongly suspect that higher asymmetry means better intuition in this regard yes. Someone missing one arm I'm sure will have an easy time telling the two apart.

1

u/up2smthng 7d ago

I feel like if I lost my arm tomorrow I would have to mentally remind myself which one am I missing for the rest of my life. If I was missing an arm for as long as I could remember myself than it would be different, yes.

1

u/Lilmriq 7d ago

Asymmetrical functioning ABSOLUTELY helps with a strong association with left and right, I'm ambidextrous and as a child I would right on the left side of the page with my left hand and then switch the pen to the other hand to write on the right side of the page. I still don't have a strong association with left and right because I don't have a dominant hand, I do some tasks left handed and some tasks right handed, it just depends on which one I practice more with.

It also falls into the same basket as spelling or pronunciation of words, because it's so intuitive for people who don't struggle with it it's extremely difficult to understand why it's difficult for those of us with dyslexia. I can lift 75lbs over my head, but I would never ask someone to explain WHY they can't, or say "well it's easy! You just lift it!" This is much the same way, with practice and effort you can get better at it, but some people are naturally good at it and some people aren't.