Originally posted by Ironduke
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Where I live (Panhandle of Florida) sits at 30 Deg lat. The deviation during the solstice's is 27 Deg. So the difference in the direction that the sun rises in summer and winter will be up to 54 Deg
The increasing inability to intuitively navigate and wayfind, in the age of GPS and smartphones, is what I believe to simply be a stark example of the erosion of the skills and capabilities of a human mind, in the age of technology. The increasing inability to tell east from west, when it's plain as day which way is which, is just an example within that example.
Even late in my former life, where navigation and knowing your location was a basic requirement for my job, I've found myself disorientated/lost.
GPS is not a crutch, nor erodes the skills and capabilities of the human mind. It allows us to focus on other task. It definatly doesn't erode skills because navigation has never been a skill that the majority of people throughout recorded history had.
Think of it like a stove or coffee maker. When I want a cup of the Nectar of the Gods I push a button on my coffee maker and 3 min later pour a cup. I don't need to practice my fire making skills, where to collect tinder ect..
Take a civil engineer from the times of the Roman Empire vs. one from the 21st century. The modern-day civil engineer uses computers and programs such as AutoCAD to do much of the work. The engineer from Roman times, the engineer's brain itself was a biological computer, and I suspect it was vastly more capable and complex than a modern mind in the same profession today. The same could be said for navigators on ships in the Age of Sail, vs navigators on ships today.
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