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Oh, I so agree; I'd love to look at their methodology, but haven't
seen the underlying article behind the New Scientist.

And your observation about routes as maps or as lists is fascinating.
And I note the ability to visualize time may also have a cultural
dimension.  The calendric system of the Classic Maya was explicitly
visual, with the calendar round comprised of four interlocking cycles,
and the Long Count depicted in art of the time (stelae and codices) as
having the time intervals carried on the backs of gods.  This pattern
is echoed today in the villages of the mayan highlands where the
ritual journeys of saints from the outlying parajes to the ceremonial
center is an explicit mirroring of calendric movement.  Most
tellingly, the mayan language has a third tenst, the Aorist, which
refers to both the future and the distant past.  In other words time
is explicitly and completely cyclic.

best
-p

On Apr 5, at , Frank Reed wrote:

> Paul, I have to say, I saw the subject line of this message via the
> NavList "Twitter feed" on my phone while I was driving. I didn't
> read the actual message (since I was driving!) but my immediate
> thought was "that sounds like something Doctor Who would say...
> 'They've been afflicted by time-space synaesthesia!' " And now I
> finally open the message and the writer from "New Scientist" says
> "Time Lords walk among us". Very funny. :-)
>
> As for seeing the calendar as a circle, or a spiral, I find these
> studies highly suspect. How do you ask that question without feeding
> the subject the information you're looking for? And besides, how
> many artistic representations of time have used such imagery? The
> sample is tainted! LOL. But here's one for you: when you picture
> directions to get from your house to your friend's house across
> town, do you picture a map viewed from overhead? Or do you picture a
> list, like a recipe, giving turn-by-turn directions? It used to be
> the case, and maybe still is, that literary-minded people see a list
> while mathematically-minded people see a map. Not suprising, I
> guess. I bet most NavList members see a map viewed from overhead.
>
> -FER
>
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