Within our high tech societies today, we have become increasingly reliant on our electronic gadgets such as; Internet ready cell phones, iPods, MP3 players, laptops, and global positioning systems (GPS). All of these electronic aides provide us services that are in most cases taken as “matters of facts” and completely trusted by the human user.
In an article I read this morning on MSN, it talked about how English truckers or better yet lorry-men are relying so heavily on their GPS devices to quickly bring them to their intended destinations, the outcome in many cases is just the opposite. A GPS uses multiple stationary satellites around the world to accurately locate an object (the lorry or truck in this case) on the surface of the planet. Now knowing the accurate position of the vehicle and having access to maps of the local area, a series of directions are calculated from start to finish and presented to the driver to follow. As the driver becomes more familiar with the technology and begins building trust in the directions they receive from the GPS, they start believing they are being directed correctly.
 This is where the current problem comes in to play. We have all heard of people literally following there GPS device’s directions and driving into lakes, rivers, or open fields and still wondering how they got there. This is what is happening to the lorry-men as their GPS directs them through small villages that are ill equipped to handle their large vehicles just because a road is on a map and it appears to offer a quicker route towards their destination. Trucks have become stuck on tight corners; houses on corners have been destroyed, personal cars have their mirrors ripped off or worse, and even one truck that became so trapped on a tight corner in a village that it took three days to remove the truck.
So what’s this all got to do with you and I? When technology becomes so trusting such as a GPS device and the directions it presents, we need to put back in some of our human common sense, such as knowing what makes sense and what does not and then deciding what actions should I take when it does not make sense. Such as stop your vehicle when you see the road narrowing, the buildings getting closer to the road, or a large body of water in your path.
Technology is wonderful when it actually assists you in doing tasks or other activities but when it replaces our common sense of right and wrong, we need to stop and reprogram ourselves to the limitations we have just encountered. Remember the old computer saying: “The computer is only as good as the data it is given” or “Good data in should mean good data out or another way bad data in is bad data coming out.” Let your common sense rule first in checking the validity of the data being presented to you.
So where is you GPS taking you today? Have you ever followed a GPS program and had it take you somewhere other than your intended destination? Where did you end up?
p.s. In England they are actually working on collecting enough data from each village, town, or city in the country and creating a lorry only GPS directions systems.