Research has found that all of us seem to use the brain’s built-in navigational system to construct mental maps, not just of physical places but of the more abstract landscape of concepts and data—the space of ideas.
This repurposing of our sense of physical place to navigate through purely mental structures is reflected in the language we use every day.
we say the future lies “up ahead,” while the past is “behind” us; we endeavour to stay “on top of things” and not to get “out of our depth” - I is an Other