A Dubai Diary on Spatial Orientation (3)

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John Stein, an emeritus professor of physiology at Oxford said that, as with so many Nobel Prize winners, the scientists' discovery was at first ridiculed and dismissed, only later to get the recognition it warrants

"This is great news and well deserved," Stein said. "I remember how great was the scoffing in the early 1970s when John first described 'place cells'. 'Bound to be an artifact' and 'he clearly underestimates rats' sense of smell' were typical reactions. Now, like so many ideas that were at first highly controversial, people say: 'Well that's obvious'!"

Reference: Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to discoverers of brain's 'inner GPS'.

February 12th 2011
 
I drove to Festival Centre to attend Rushdi’s and Noura’s wedding. I saw the InterContinental Hotel from the distance, and kept that visual orientation in mind, as I descended into the parking lot. I was pissed, when the lane I was on exited me out. Oh, what stupid people built this country (rf. parking lot, at the New York University-Abu Dhabi). I navigated myself back into the lot and drove around, but I simply couldn't find parking.  I found my way to one level down, and slid into a space right next to the escalator.

Let me pause, and make notes on the Algorithm for Spatial Orientation:

• It’s worked very well indeed to relax and visualize my route from home to my destination. I mean, concentrate and really visualize it. This process takes just seconds.
• I developed this point further this evening: Look for my destination, or at least markers of it, if I can’t see it. Once, I have found it, then I need to turn the visual orientation into a mental compass. Follow this compass.
• As I leave my car parked, I have to trace my steps from there to my actual destination. Nothing is logical in this country, so I have to rely on my own navigation algorithm. Actually, it’s just a bit more complex, as I have to visualize ‘walking backward,’ that is, as I go from my destination, back to my car.
• This visualizing includes memorizing markers, and their sequence, of course.
• All along, I keep my mental compass of where my destination is.

This worked very well tonight. As it turned out, where I parked was the perfect location. Truly it’s God, because it was closest to the escalator. Where the escalator emerged was at the end of the Centre, where the InterContinental Hotel was situated. Within a minute, I was out by the canal walk, and there was the hotel, just as I had had it in my mind.

I entered the hotel from the canal level, and found my way to the Al Ras Ballroom perfectly, with help from a couple of guys I asked there. Now, the thing that I forgot was, of course, to visualize and memorize my steps from where I entered the hotel and where I found the ballroom. Interestingly, even though it was a bit of stop-and-go, back to that particular hotel entrance, I managed to find it without any difficulty.

• When I’m not sure, go slow. Take it easy.
• My recollection of the visual cues may be hazy and incomplete, but I can still rely, even unconsciously, on those cues. Which is what I did tonight.
• Oh, also, a couple of times, as I was navigating my way back to that hotel entrance, I looked backward. Because that backward look was my forward look, heading to the ballroom.

This last point was a perfect solution in the navigation process, as I saw three desks to my left of the reception clerks, going forward earlier in the evening. Looking backward, then, I saw the same thing, and knew I was in the right direction. Moreover, I could remember approximately where I emerged on that floor. I didn’t remember taking the steps up, only vaguely. But I reasoned that because I did recall approximately where on the reception floor I came in, I must’ve taken those steps. Sure enough, I was right, and within a minute I was out that original entrance. From there, to my car, was very easy, because of the visualizing and memorizing I was doing earlier on.