Millions of species undertake epic journeys at scales both large and small. Getting lost is a uniquely human problem. Many animals are incredible navigators, capable of undertaking journeys that far eclipse our individual abilities. One of the devices that an animal needs to navigate is a “clock” — an internal mechanism for measuring or keeping time. The notion that animals have a bio-compass that can “read” the earth’s geomagnetic field has now emerged as the most promising explanation of animal navigation. In addition to those marathon migratory species, nearly every animal that has been tested thus far demonstrates a capacity to orient to the geomagnetic field. Humans navigate the world not only by orienting in space but by orienting in time. Mental time travel — the ability to remember and reflect, to imagine and plan for the future — is what made us human.
Key Takeaways:
- M.R. O’Connor inquires into how we orient in space and selfhood and observes that getting lost is a uniquely human problem.
- Animals often have incredible internal mechanisms for timekeeping and space-mapping.
- The hippocampus is the center of our autonoetic consciousness and spatial navigation, and it is remarkably plastic.
“The hippocampus has sometimes been described as the human GPS, but this metaphor is reductive compared to what this remarkable, plastic part of our minds accomplishes.”
Read more: https://www.brainpickings.org/2021/09/24/wayfinding-m-r-oconnor/
