No that makes sense. It's crazy how much GPS has changed day to day life, and in such rapid speed and to such an extent we just don't even think about it.
One of my favourite things these days is to just jump in the car with my wife and just go for a drive in the countryside. I'll avoid main roads wherever possible, and just pootle along country lanes looking for wildlife and interesting things. And the best part is that I literally can't get lost, because at the point when I want to go home, I just hit the 'Home' icon on the screen in the car and it automatically calculates the quickest route for me.
Sure, my grandparents could have done similar, but they'd have had to bust out the maps and figure out where they were and how to get home. All I do is press a button.
This statement confuses me somewhat, is it a bit? The "crazy" difference in my life without GPS would be: I'd have spent some more hours of my life looking at maps to work out where I am. That's what we did when I was a child and it really didn't take long.
Lmfao yes. Instantly knowing exactly where we are on a map has DRAMATICALLY and FUNDAMENTALLY changed our entire species. There are so many systems interwoven through GPS. I’m assuming you’re just being facetious but if not.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianafurchtgott-roth/2023/09/26/gps-technology-that-truly-changed-the-world/
You are never lost in any place on the globe. You can always make your way home. Finding way to any other place has now become nothing but a question of entering an address in a phone.
That is unironically a superpower. The fact that saying "I always have up to date information about most of the world, I always know where I am, I am able to find my way to any place, anywhere, at any time. I always know of changes to routes and roadblocks. I am never lost" a trivial statement, is testament to just how integrated GPS is in our lives.
Your maps are always up to date with all information you could ever need.
This has severely facilitated individual navigation, removing one of the main advantages of public transport (in the perspective of the individual user. I wrote part of my bachelors thesis about this) making it so more people are perceiving the car as the most effective medium of transport.
I cannot overstate how much of a simplification "I look less at maps" is. Actually think of the many times you are in a new place. Think of the times your friends have suddenly changed the address for your meet-up.
Think of the value the knowledge "I always know where I am" has. This is what I mean when I say this has happened so fast and I'm such an all-encompassing way that we don't even perceive it.
"I look less at maps." You don't have accurate maps of every place you visit. Those maps are not up to date. Those maps will not contain the amount of information a GPS contains. If they do, then you have allocated a significant amount of resources towards the goal of always having up to date maps (and more than one type for each place) of every place, everywhere you might ever go.
Navigating by way of map in unfamiliar environments isn't just a quick look and you're done. The very basic way you drive has changed. When was the last time you slowed down at every street looking at roadsigns? When was the last time you pulled over to re read the map? When did you last have to rely on local knowledge? Reducing this to "I look less at maps" is a massive trivialisation of an impressive reduction in the labour and resources required for individual wayfinding.
If you want a fun visualization of this: Beverly Hills Cop had the protagonist get some fancy sci-fi tech. That sci-fi tech was GPS.
Even if it actually would be true that all it would mean to you really just is "less map" think of the world you exist in. Do you know how airplanes navigated before GPS or proto-GPS? Ships? I've done old school navigation and it is tiresome. You have to constantly recalibrate your compass. Mark your way. How do you know how fast you're moving when you can't reliably know where you are? The water moves your ship just as your engine does, but how do you know how much and in what direction accurately?
Lord help you if you're in shallow waters with sandbanks.
90% of all cargo is transported on ships. The modern system of JIT-delivery would not be feasible without GPS.
Same goes for trucks. Any transport of goods has been made significantly easier reducing in large part the time it takes, the level of uncertainty and the amount of labor involved.
These things impact you.
Warfare has been changed by GPS as well. The fact that all soldiers can accurately know where they are, where their destination is and what route would be best. At all times. And this information can easily and effectively be communicated up thru the chain of command.
This is a drastic change of the world we live in.
An entire experience of being in a place you do not know, no longer exists. You are (practically) never lost. I really cannot describe how big a deal it is that people are not lost as long as they have connection and power.
Edit: Read the article linked by @aStonedSanta@lemm.ee it details lots of stuff I didn't cover. It's got some fearmongering, but the GPS stuff is good.
Of course it's apple maps.
But seriously if you ever need to have something to ponder, sit down and think about how different your life would be without GPS.
No that makes sense. It's crazy how much GPS has changed day to day life, and in such rapid speed and to such an extent we just don't even think about it.
One of my favourite things these days is to just jump in the car with my wife and just go for a drive in the countryside. I'll avoid main roads wherever possible, and just pootle along country lanes looking for wildlife and interesting things. And the best part is that I literally can't get lost, because at the point when I want to go home, I just hit the 'Home' icon on the screen in the car and it automatically calculates the quickest route for me.
Sure, my grandparents could have done similar, but they'd have had to bust out the maps and figure out where they were and how to get home. All I do is press a button.
It really is very cool.
This statement confuses me somewhat, is it a bit? The "crazy" difference in my life without GPS would be: I'd have spent some more hours of my life looking at maps to work out where I am. That's what we did when I was a child and it really didn't take long.
That's honestly it.
It's not a bit. GPS has fundamentally changed several aspects of our lives.
Instantly knowing where you are on a map has fundamentally changed several aspects of our lives? I really disagree.
I could well be the weirdo but it's fundamentally changed no aspects of my life. I would love to know how it has others.
Lmfao yes. Instantly knowing exactly where we are on a map has DRAMATICALLY and FUNDAMENTALLY changed our entire species. There are so many systems interwoven through GPS. I’m assuming you’re just being facetious but if not. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianafurchtgott-roth/2023/09/26/gps-technology-that-truly-changed-the-world/
You are never lost in any place on the globe. You can always make your way home. Finding way to any other place has now become nothing but a question of entering an address in a phone.
That is unironically a superpower. The fact that saying "I always have up to date information about most of the world, I always know where I am, I am able to find my way to any place, anywhere, at any time. I always know of changes to routes and roadblocks. I am never lost" a trivial statement, is testament to just how integrated GPS is in our lives.
Your maps are always up to date with all information you could ever need.
This has severely facilitated individual navigation, removing one of the main advantages of public transport (in the perspective of the individual user. I wrote part of my bachelors thesis about this) making it so more people are perceiving the car as the most effective medium of transport.
I cannot overstate how much of a simplification "I look less at maps" is. Actually think of the many times you are in a new place. Think of the times your friends have suddenly changed the address for your meet-up.
Think of the value the knowledge "I always know where I am" has. This is what I mean when I say this has happened so fast and I'm such an all-encompassing way that we don't even perceive it.
"I look less at maps." You don't have accurate maps of every place you visit. Those maps are not up to date. Those maps will not contain the amount of information a GPS contains. If they do, then you have allocated a significant amount of resources towards the goal of always having up to date maps (and more than one type for each place) of every place, everywhere you might ever go.
Navigating by way of map in unfamiliar environments isn't just a quick look and you're done. The very basic way you drive has changed. When was the last time you slowed down at every street looking at roadsigns? When was the last time you pulled over to re read the map? When did you last have to rely on local knowledge? Reducing this to "I look less at maps" is a massive trivialisation of an impressive reduction in the labour and resources required for individual wayfinding.
If you want a fun visualization of this: Beverly Hills Cop had the protagonist get some fancy sci-fi tech. That sci-fi tech was GPS.
Even if it actually would be true that all it would mean to you really just is "less map" think of the world you exist in. Do you know how airplanes navigated before GPS or proto-GPS? Ships? I've done old school navigation and it is tiresome. You have to constantly recalibrate your compass. Mark your way. How do you know how fast you're moving when you can't reliably know where you are? The water moves your ship just as your engine does, but how do you know how much and in what direction accurately?
Lord help you if you're in shallow waters with sandbanks.
90% of all cargo is transported on ships. The modern system of JIT-delivery would not be feasible without GPS.
Same goes for trucks. Any transport of goods has been made significantly easier reducing in large part the time it takes, the level of uncertainty and the amount of labor involved.
These things impact you.
Warfare has been changed by GPS as well. The fact that all soldiers can accurately know where they are, where their destination is and what route would be best. At all times. And this information can easily and effectively be communicated up thru the chain of command.
This is a drastic change of the world we live in.
An entire experience of being in a place you do not know, no longer exists. You are (practically) never lost. I really cannot describe how big a deal it is that people are not lost as long as they have connection and power.
Edit: Read the article linked by @aStonedSanta@lemm.ee it details lots of stuff I didn't cover. It's got some fearmongering, but the GPS stuff is good.
Just follow the GPS, it's easy like that.
Of course it's apple maps.
But seriously if you ever need to have something to ponder, sit down and think about how different your life would be without GPS.
Right, for example i never visited Zagreb.