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> Human senses could not notice such small changes over the course of a lifetime or even over the lifespan of an empire. I don't disagree in this case. But I a

> Human senses could not notice such small changes over the course of a lifetime or even over the lifespan of an empire. I don't disagree in this case. But I am continually amazed at how resourceful and technical past civilizations could be. For instance early polynesian navigators ("wayfinders") could look at patterns in wave refraction across the ocean surface, to locate islands over the horizon [1]. They also memorized the setting and rising positions of hundreds of stars. [1] Unfortunately, much of this knowledge was lost, as the polynesians did not have a written system of language. 1 - https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/physical/navigation-and-transportation/wayfinding-and-navigation https://manoa.hawaii.edu/exploringourfluidearth/physical/nav...

wahern 5y ago
> Unfortunately, much of this knowledge was lost, as the polynesians did not have a written system of language. Having a writing system might have been sufficient to prevent the loss, but not necessary. I'd argue the immediate cause was the disappearance of folk songs and similar rituals that encoded this knowledge in the culture. > In Oceania’s oral culture, narrative was the primary tool to memorize and transmit complex accounts of interconnected voyaging routes through the sea of islands. These accounts would have been replete with their respective star (and sun) courses, with bearings, instructions for seasons for travel, the expected quality of swell, winds, sea marks and other indispensable information for reckoning and island finding. In other words, Oceanic geography was, like Oceanic history, genealogy and all other matters of education, a narrative art, taught and memorized at specialized marae primarily through the recitation of chants. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1512369 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1... (Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz, The Making of Tupaia’s Map: A Story of the Extent and Mastery of Polynesian Navigation, Competing Systems of Wayfinding on James Cook’s Endeavour, and the Invention of an Ingenious Cartographic System) Unfortunately it seems that these particular oral traditions lost their fidelity before the age of audio recording. The introduction of writing systems has preserved much knowledge, but it has also destroyed much knowledge by supplanting other modes of preservation. I'm not even sure which is greater. Most of the utility in the adoption of writing systems is prospective, I think. Interestingly, modernity may be its own worst enemy in this regard. A friend recently pointed me to this experiment that pitted Memory Palaces against an Australian Aboriginal memorization technique[1] by assigning incoming medical students to three different groups: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251710 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... The authors' conclusion was that the aboriginal technique offered substantially superior recall, but they refrained from detailing the technique out of fear of cultural insensitivity! sigh Maybe it would have been insensitive, and maybe they did the right thing, but the irony is astounding. [1] Apropos the navigation theme, the technique seems to be one way Aborigines teach their star charts. In fact, the technique itself seems to encode some cultural knowledge, which is presumably why even providing the details might seem culturally invasive--because such knowledge isn't intended for outsiders, except unless taught by a member.
- david-gpu 5y ago
  The system appears to involve music, dance and places. It seems to be documented in the following book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29759605-the-memory-code https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29759605-the-memory-code

wahern 5y ago

> Unfortunately, much of this knowledge was lost, as the polynesians did not have a written system of language. Having a writing system might have been sufficient to prevent the loss, but not necessary. I'd argue the immediate cause was the disappearance of folk songs and similar rituals that encoded this knowledge in the culture. > In Oceania’s oral culture, narrative was the primary tool to memorize and transmit complex accounts of interconnected voyaging routes through the sea of islands. These accounts would have been replete with their respective star (and sun) courses, with bearings, instructions for seasons for travel, the expected quality of swell, winds, sea marks and other indispensable information for reckoning and island finding. In other words, Oceanic geography was, like Oceanic history, genealogy and all other matters of education, a narrative art, taught and memorized at specialized marae primarily through the recitation of chants. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1512369 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223344.2018.1... (Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz, The Making of Tupaia’s Map: A Story of the Extent and Mastery of Polynesian Navigation, Competing Systems of Wayfinding on James Cook’s Endeavour, and the Invention of an Ingenious Cartographic System) Unfortunately it seems that these particular oral traditions lost their fidelity before the age of audio recording. The introduction of writing systems has preserved much knowledge, but it has also destroyed much knowledge by supplanting other modes of preservation. I'm not even sure which is greater. Most of the utility in the adoption of writing systems is prospective, I think. Interestingly, modernity may be its own worst enemy in this regard. A friend recently pointed me to this experiment that pitted Memory Palaces against an Australian Aboriginal memorization technique[1] by assigning incoming medical students to three different groups: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0251710 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... The authors' conclusion was that the aboriginal technique offered substantially superior recall, but they refrained from detailing the technique out of fear of cultural insensitivity! sigh Maybe it would have been insensitive, and maybe they did the right thing, but the irony is astounding. [1] Apropos the navigation theme, the technique seems to be one way Aborigines teach their star charts. In fact, the technique itself seems to encode some cultural knowledge, which is presumably why even providing the details might seem culturally invasive--because such knowledge isn't intended for outsiders, except unless taught by a member.

david-gpu 5y ago
The system appears to involve music, dance and places. It seems to be documented in the following book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29759605-the-memory-code https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29759605-the-memory-code