Here's an interesting writeup of a sort of adjacent issue. The mechanics of detecting the magnetic field aside, what happens when the human brain has constant access to directional information. An...
Here's an interesting writeup of a sort of adjacent issue. The mechanics of detecting the magnetic field aside, what happens when the human brain has constant access to directional information. An experiment was done where a person wore a special belt for several weeks that contained a digital compass and vibrating devices on each side, the northernmost of which would constantly vibrate. His entire "internal map" was re-written to take advantage of this new sensory input.
That was very interesting. It actually reminded me of Human Echolocation and most notably of Daniel Kish. He's essentially become the face of this amazing and little known human ability. Here's a...
That was very interesting. It actually reminded me of Human Echolocation and most notably of Daniel Kish. He's essentially become the face of this amazing and little known human ability. Here's a video of him giving a Ted talk in India. If you know of him, and how well he utilizes echo location the intro is extra interesting but it's still interesting to listen to him regardless.
Somewhat relatedly, this has always stuck with me: What happens if one loses sense of direction inside a building or after being spun around a bunch of times.
Somewhat relatedly, this has always stuck with me:
In fact, Guugu Yimithirr doesn’t make any use of egocentric coordinates at all. The anthropologist John Haviland and later the linguist Stephen Levinson have shown that Guugu Yimithirr does not use words like “left” or “right,” “in front of” or “behind,” to describe the position of objects. Whenever we would use the egocentric system, the Guugu Yimithirr rely on cardinal directions. If they want you to move over on the car seat to make room, they’ll say “move a bit to the east.” To tell you where exactly they left something in your house, they’ll say, “I left it on the southern edge of the western table.” Or they would warn you to “look out for that big ant just north of your foot.” Even when shown a film on television, they gave descriptions of it based on the orientation of the screen. If the television was facing north, and a man on the screen was approaching, they said that he was “coming northward.”
What happens if one loses sense of direction inside a building or after being spun around a bunch of times.
Here's an interesting writeup of a sort of adjacent issue. The mechanics of detecting the magnetic field aside, what happens when the human brain has constant access to directional information. An experiment was done where a person wore a special belt for several weeks that contained a digital compass and vibrating devices on each side, the northernmost of which would constantly vibrate. His entire "internal map" was re-written to take advantage of this new sensory input.
https://www.wired.com/2007/04/esp/
That was very interesting. It actually reminded me of Human Echolocation and most notably of Daniel Kish. He's essentially become the face of this amazing and little known human ability. Here's a video of him giving a Ted talk in India. If you know of him, and how well he utilizes echo location the intro is extra interesting but it's still interesting to listen to him regardless.
Somewhat relatedly, this has always stuck with me:
What happens if one loses sense of direction inside a building or after being spun around a bunch of times.