3 ms·

> It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. I'm reminded of "Story of Your Life" [1] / "Arrival" [2] wherein

> It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. I'm reminded of "Story of Your Life" [1] / "Arrival" [2] wherein a character's language shapes their thoughts. Those are fiction, but there's also some supporting non-fiction evidence. Apparently there's a tribe of humans on Earth (in Australia) whose language primarily refers to cardinal directions when describing the location of things - as in "hand me the north cup on the table". I don't think that's the only one - there's also Tenejapan Mayans [4]. From the latter group there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately. All of this is to say that maybe in fact some humans actually can sense this as if they had an internal compass. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) [3] https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.pdf https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.... [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately Strongly calling B.S. on this claim.
- mattkrause 4y ago
  I doubt a human could directly sense magnetic north, but with practice you could perhaps learn to integrate external cues (like sunrise/set) with your own movements to keep track of the cardinal directions.
- pencilguin 4y ago
  Ignorant skepticism is exactly equally as bad as ignorant credulity. There is no physical reason humans could not have a latent magnetic sense. Other animals are known to have it. So, experiment is determinative.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately Strongly calling B.S. on this claim.

mattkrause 4y ago
I doubt a human could directly sense magnetic north, but with practice you could perhaps learn to integrate external cues (like sunrise/set) with your own movements to keep track of the cardinal directions.
pencilguin 4y ago
Ignorant skepticism is exactly equally as bad as ignorant credulity. There is no physical reason humans could not have a latent magnetic sense. Other animals are known to have it. So, experiment is determinative.