Perceptual Divergence: Hyperphantasia, Face Blindness, and Synaesthesia

Perceptual Divergence: Hyperphantasia, Face Blindness, and Synaesthesia

Welcome back to the Information Entropy Podcast where this week we are back to our regular two-host shenanigans and we are exploring the different ways that people perceive the world. Hyperphantasia is the enhanced ability to visualise things in your mind’s eye, Mitch conducts the “Cube Test” on Tom to test hist ability, come and try it out yourself! Tom looks at face blindness and asks why specifically encoding identity information with facial features gets specifically targeted. Finally, the boys explore Synaesthesia, a fascinating perceptual experience where some individuals senses are biologically intertwined leading sound to produce colours!

Do Animals Experience Emotion?

In this episode of The Information Entropy Podcast, we ask: Do animals experience emotions? We are right in the middle of Tom’s area of work and interest so today he is going to explore how the field of emotion seeks to answer one of the biggest questions we have about animals. Tom first starts with what emotion is and the philosopher’s dilemma known as “the problem of other minds”. From there Tom explores the different theories of emotion in humans (discrete or dimensional) and how frameworks apply those approaches to investigating the presence of emotions in animals.

Is Anything Truly Random?

In this episode of The Information Entropy Podcast, we ask a simple question: is anything truly random? We explore why randomness matters for cryptography, statistics, and scientific modelling, and how computers attempt to generate unpredictability from purely deterministic logic. From game show exploits to lava lamps and quantum vacuum fluctuations, we trace how humans try to manufacture randomness from the universe itself. Finally, we confront a surprising problem: even “random” real-world data is full of patterns that can mislead us into seeing structure where none exists!

Exploring the Minds Eye: Aphantasia and Beyond

Welcome back to the Information Entropy Podcast! This is a special episode as Mitch and Tom conduct their first ever in-person recording of the show! The boys embark on a journey of perceptual differences as they seek to understand how other people internally perceive and process the world, starting with those people with Aphantasia: the inability to visualise things in the minds eye.

Extinction: Mechanisms, Conservation, and Humans

Welcome back to The Information Entropy Podcast! This week the boys finish their exploration of extinction, managing to stay much more on topic! The boys start by contemplating the Hantavirus outbreak in relation to previous circumstances before quickly recapping what classifies as extinction. They turn to the topic of conservation strategies and how they can help and how sometimes they might be misaligned. Mitch explores the leading causes of extinction while Tom reinforces the biological mechanisms at play within a declining population.