Everyone in my family is good at reading maps. Except for me. Whatever vestigial map reading skills that I possessed have atrophied, because they are all so good at it.
I believe there are two kinds of people in the world, with incompatible world views: those who set their GPS so that “Up” is “North,” and those who set their GPS so that is “Up” is “The Direction I Am Currently Going.”
Folks who prefer an absolute frame of reference v people who prefer a relative frame of reference?
Are there really people who set their GPS’s to “N”=up? And, if there really are two kinds of people, does their mapping preference translate into life? Is the second group more egocentric? The first more authoritarian?
What about the third category: people who don’t use GPS because they’ve memorized maps. 🙂
I got my husband a GPS for his birthday last year. He loves it. But I never use it except in unusual situations.
I ALWAYS use Up=North on my car GPS. It doesn’t make sense to me the other way. I see the streets on the map, I turn left, and suddenly the entire world has rotated 90 degrees! Nothing is where it was before! It makes me completely lost.
I can’t understand how it could be easier to pretend that the entire world is spinning around.
I believe there are two kinds of people in the world, with incompatible world views: those who set their GPS so that “Up” is “North,” and those who set their GPS so that is “Up” is “The Direction I Am Currently Going.”
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Folks who prefer an absolute frame of reference v people who prefer a relative frame of reference?
Are there really people who set their GPS’s to “N”=up? And, if there really are two kinds of people, does their mapping preference translate into life? Is the second group more egocentric? The first more authoritarian?
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What about the third category: people who don’t use GPS because they’ve memorized maps. 🙂
I got my husband a GPS for his birthday last year. He loves it. But I never use it except in unusual situations.
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I ALWAYS use Up=North on my car GPS. It doesn’t make sense to me the other way. I see the streets on the map, I turn left, and suddenly the entire world has rotated 90 degrees! Nothing is where it was before! It makes me completely lost.
I can’t understand how it could be easier to pretend that the entire world is spinning around.
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That’s really anti-science. Even the ‘no evolution’ people have no problem with a world spinning around.
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It doesn’t make sense to me the other way.
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