<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2013-11-13 10:11, Kelly Anderson
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPy8RwbNWhrO=diR60iFeCHd-tcE7krO-5nTU0X6YHt57J_vPw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 1:00 AM, Anders Sandberg <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:anders@aleph.se" target="_blank">anders@aleph.se</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div>
<div class="h5"><br>
</div>
</div>
In fact, we cannot even handle planetary scales. I
cannot intuitively think about the distance from Oxford
to Stockholm or even London. I can compare it to known
distances, I can play around with imagined maps, I can
remember what the trip is like, but I don't *feel* it
like I feel the distances within the towns where I have
walked. </div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But it's not incomprehensible... Just slightly out of
our daily experience level.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Kind of. I just arrived in Plzen in the Czech republic (world
capital of the letter 'Z'!) I have been here before, I know where it
is on the map, but I do not *feel* like I am 1,051 kilometres away
from home. I *feel* that walking to the university from where I am
now is a long walk. But I cannot *feel* how much longer walking to
Oxford would be compared to walking to Prague, despite a sizeable
difference. <br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPy8RwbNWhrO=diR60iFeCHd-tcE7krO-5nTU0X6YHt57J_vPw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">I suspect the reason
is that in order to go between these places I have to
take a vehicle rather than wander. </div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But if you have ever walked to somewhere you normally
drive to, it gives you a sense of how to scale.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
What happens is that your local place cell maps get joined up.
London is typically first experienced as a "mole map", where you get
to know regions around tube stations. Gradually they join up,
forming a larger map of neighbourhoods. Scale shows up about now,
except that it only covers the central parts you deal with.<br>
<br>
Human movement is somewhat fractal: lots of local movement in small
clustered regions (home, work, museums, strolls), fewer longer trips
(commutes, visit to remote office) and even fewer very long trips
(the median UK business traveller makes 7 flights per year). Only
the local movement produces sensible senses of scale. <br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPy8RwbNWhrO=diR60iFeCHd-tcE7krO-5nTU0X6YHt57J_vPw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">In between these
target places there is an awful lot of places that would
feel big to me if I were in them, but since I have never
been to Ipswich I do not have any feel for it. It is
just a point on my mental map (with a sticky note saying
it was used in a Monty Python joke).<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I can't say that I have ANY feeling for Great Britain,
despite having flown over it once or twice.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Exactly! The American Midwest is an abstraction or TV setting for
me, despite having seen it ("flyover country") from the airplane
window many times. <br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
</pre>
</body>
</html>