From Here to There

The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way

How is it that we can walk unfamiliar streets while maintaining a sense of direction? How can we come up with shortcuts on the fly, in places we've never traveled? The answer is the complex mental map in our brains. This feature of our cognition is easily taken for granted, but it's also critical to our species' evolutionary success. In From Here to There, Michael Bond tells stories of the lost and found - Polynesian sailors, orienteering champions, early aviators - and surveys the science of human navigation.

Navigation skills are deeply embedded in our biology. The ability to find our way over large distances in prehistoric times gave Homo sapiens an advantage, allowing us to explore the farthest regions of the planet. Wayfinding also shaped vital cognitive functions outside the realm of navigation, including abstract thinking, imagination, and memory. Bond brings a reporter's curiosity and nose for narrative to the latest research from psychologists, neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, and anthropologists.

He also turns to the people who design and expertly maneuver the world we navigate: search-and-rescue volunteers, cartographers, ordnance mappers, urban planners, and more. The result is a global expedition that furthers our understanding of human orienting in natural and built environments.

©2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

An important topic and an enlightening listen!

Very entertaining explanation of one of our most important but underappreciated core activities. It's hard not to see how losing this skill has set society up for distress.

Fascinating

I am constantly astonished to learn how much we still don't know. Wonderful research told in a very engaging way. Loved it.