The mapping brain

This is an interesting article from National Geographic about "The Map and the Mind", which makes the argument that our intellectual maturation as individuals can be traced through the way we draw pictures, or maps, of our surroundings, and that the humble map helped “advance the evolution of abstract thinking” throughout society.

"Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, examines how our intellectual technologies—the tools we use to find, store, and share information—influence the way that we think, from the map and the clock to the book and the Internet. In this excerpt, Carr looks at the map’s far-reaching effects on the intellectual lives of our ancestors."

I assume in the book he talks about internet mapping and LBS, but that will have to wait until I can get my hands on the book.