## Metadata - Author: [[M. R. O'Connor]] - Full Title: Wayfinding - Category: #books ## Highlights - Our shift from mobile hunter-gatherer bands to sedentary communities and eventually states, what is known as the Neolithic Revolution some ten thousand years ago, has been described by Yale political scientist James Scott as a process of de-skilling. At every step, he writes in Against the Grain, the skills necessary for survival “represent[ed] a substantial narrowing of focus and a simplification of tasks.” ([Location 85](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B077F27CNP&location=85)) - Noetic comes from the ancient Greek noéō meaning “I perceive” or “I understand,” and the term autonoetic is now used to describe our ability to mentally represent ourselves as autonomous agents in time, giving us the capacity for self-reflectivity and self-knowing. ([Location 121](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B077F27CNP&location=121))