[eljugadordepoquer]

I don't get it. If we experienced a polar shift, we would be rotating on a different axis, so the North star would no longer be "The center of the record player", so why would you need a ground reference if you were taking long-exposure photos or film? You would see it when you looked at the exposure.

I guess I was assuming there wouldn't be any technology available.

But regardless, my idea of a pole shift is that the crust of the earth slips over the mantle. I don't think the axis of rotation with respect to the stars can change because of the conservation of angular momentum. We would just be translated on the surface. In other words, you may be in canada but you now occupy the place china currently occupies. So it would be as if you look up at the sky in china. The stars wouldn't change, but your reference on the earth's surface will tell you that the land you're on is now pointing in a different direction than it used to point.