Michael Bond is a science writer and former Senior Editor at New Scientist. His work has appeared in Nature, Aeon, Discover, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Financial Times, and elsewhere. His book The Power of Others: Peer Pressure, Groupthink, and How the People Around Us Shape Everything We Do won the British Psychology Society Science Book of the Year Award.
The abilities that are cultivated in wayfinding—imagining things
from different viewpoints, moving the mind backward and forward in
time, seeing situations from other perspectives, weighing
alternatives subtly against one another before making the best
decisions, seeking information from others and giving it freely in
return—might be the same abilities that contribute to a resilient,
equitable community or polity. If this is wayfinding, then we need
it now more than ever.
*New York Review of Books*
One of the most fascinating books I have read for a long while…If
you want to understand what rats can teach us about better-planned
cities, why walking into a different room can help you find your
car keys, or how your brain’s grid, border, and speed cells combine
to give us a sense of direction, this book has all the answers.
*The Scotsman*
Fascinating…Makes a compelling case that our ancient abilities to
get from A to B aren’t just a matter of geography…Bond is not only
interested in how we find our way, but also in how we get lost and
how it affects us.
*New Statesman*
At the heart of this book is a detailed account of the neuroscience
of navigation. It is fascinating…Ultimately, ‘we are spatial
beings’ and [From Here to There] skillfully and at times movingly
makes the case for how deeply that is true.
*Sunday Times*
An excellently researched popular science book which explains how
people—including experienced travelers—get lost, and why some
individuals have superior navigational skills than others.
*The Spectator*
Bond guides readers through the neurological research and anecdotal
tales that show how the brain supplies the equipment upon which our
species has built its wayfinding skills…He concludes that, by
setting aside our GPS devices, by redesigning parts of our cities
and play areas, and sometimes just by letting ourselves get lost,
we can indeed revivify our ability to find our way, to the benefit
of our inner world no less than the outer one.
*Science*
Fascinating…He explains why people don’t get lost more often, how
brains makes ‘cognitive maps,’ and how an ‘understanding of the
world around us affects our psychology and
behavior.’…Adventure-loving readers will be richly rewarded.
*Publishers Weekly*
A scientifically rich look at how humans manage to get around in
the world.
*Kirkus Reviews*
An important book that reminds us that navigation remains one of
our most underappreciated arts.
*Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator*
A fascinating excursion into the very nature of exploration.
Absorbing stuff, for armchair travelers and rough ’n’ tough
adventurers alike.
*Benedict Allen, explorer and presenter in Expedition
Africa, Unbreakable, and Travellers’ Century*
In the modern world of road signs and GPS, it is easy to ignore our
natural navigational instincts. I hope this book will inspire
people to explore and experiment with those abilities, for if they
do, they will be in for a wonderful surprise.
*Robin Knox-Johnston, winner of the Sunday Times Golden
Globe Race as the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop
around the world*
A fascinating and engaging look at how we navigate, from the first
humans to modern-day hikers zombified by overuse of GPS. Bond has
collected in one place many of the important studies on wayfinding,
with riveting anecdotes of real situations where life or death
hangs in the balance.
*John Huth, author of The Lost Art of Finding Our Way*
[An] absorbing exploration of the intersection of neuroscience and
geography.
*Maclean’s*
A thoroughly engaging book, essential reading for anyone who
regularly spends time outdoors or wishes to better understand how
our brains make sense of the spatial cues in the diverse
environments which we pass through.
*Ridgeline Images*
A fascinating exploration of how we learn to find our way as
children and how we may risk unlearning it from lack of use thanks
to GPS or from the damage of Alzheimer’s Disease. Through that arc
of life, Bond explores the different ways we think about finding
our way and what parts of the brain are likely to be
involved…Illuminating.
*Tonstant Weader Reviews*
Highly engaging…Bond makes a compelling case for why the reader
should become more interested not only in avoiding becoming lost,
but also in enjoying the experience of getting lost!
*Choice*
We are biologically hardwired to orient ourselves in space, but a
lot can go wrong with the system—which is, in some ways, even more
interesting…But Bond also warns of the potential to squander our
evolutionarily endowed spatial awareness through pure neglect. An
era of GPS and self-driving vehicles may be convenient but also
profoundly forgettable.
*Inside Higher Ed*
Bond invites us to ditch the GPS and follow him on a wayfinding
adventure through evolutionary history, cultural anthropology, and
cognitive neuroscience to discover why the ability to navigate is
so critically important to the human condition.
*Quarterly Review of Biology*
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