[at-l] The News

[Felix J]

On 1/17/2011 12:06 PM, Jim Bullard wrote:
> FWIW I wasn't taught map navigation in school. I didn't 
> even learn it in Boy Scouts (only belonged to the scouts 
> one year). I learned it in the Army and refined my skills 
> on my own.
>
> Kids are being taught how to find a book in the library 
> but we aren't going to libraries as much because you can 
> find most of what you need to know on your computer and 
> save a trip to town. If you have a smart phone you can 
> look things up wherever you are.
>
> It isn't about knowing less, it's that we know different 
> things because different things are important to us. It is 
> important (IMO) if you are hiking in unfamiliar territory 
> that you should know basic navigation in case your GPS 
> batteries die but people went into the woods without map 
> skills before there were GPS units. That's not new and 
> I've even heard some AT thru-hikers argue that maps were 
> unnecessary. The fact that some people don't know some 
> things that I consider important doesn't mean that humans 
> in general know less than in the past.


It's sorta like most of our knowledge is on CD-roms instead 
of the hard-drive.  Like we're eating M&Ms instead of carrots.