[HN Gopher] How to Be Blind ___________________________________________________________________ How to Be Blind Author : bcraven Score : 26 points Date : 2023-07-26 10:47 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com) | rekabis wrote: | > I had to lift the landscape in my mind, rotate it ninety | degrees, and set it back down. | | Fully sighted, but I have been doing something vaguely similar | for decades. As soon as I know an area decently well, or have | taken at least one good look at a map, I can visualize the entire | region's roads and rotate it in my mind to find the best path | (shortest time or least stress) from point A to point B. It's | fantastically handy to use in larger cities without having to | pull out a map. | | And as long as I have prominent landmarks to reference | (mountains, etc.), I have a remarkably good sense of direction | thanks to that mental model. Provided I have been fully aware of | the scenery during my first trip anywhere, I can usually find my | way back there from any other direction in which major roads | exist. There is a fair bit of "hunting" to find the right road to | go down, sure, but I rarely stray significantly from the correct | direction. | | Downside is that this _is_ 100% reliant on sight to triangulate | across geographical landmarks, I'll grant you that. But it's the | mental model being used by the author that I'm surprised to see | is so apparently similar. | bcraven wrote: | 12ft link: | https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fcu... | | Andrew's old podcast is highly recommended, later episodes even | reference his increasing blindness. | https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/the-organist ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-07-27 23:00 UTC)