something happened though, on the trips around the city, my dad still would get directions anyhow. these directions would often cause him to second guess the device. the trips became even more frustrating as a new battle emerged between my dad and the gps (sometimes, neither won and we ended up lost AND late).

there are times when new information and technology just make the world seem more complex. and gps devices are only really helpful if you are able to understand why they might be more trustworthy (or not) than directions from the fellow at the 7-11.

The GPS is, to my mind, nefarious for another reason: it is indispensable because we can no longer rely on “local knowledge.” Its widespread presence – even necessity – reflects the fact that many, even most of us use our automobiles to be in places where we are essentially lost. One thing I’ve enjoyed about being back in Princeton this year was the storehouse of unforgotten knowledge of best routes that I’d learned from living there over the years. These are NEVER the routes that a GPS will lead you to – the device will always send you either on the most “direct” (and often very bad) route, or the one with the biggest roadways. The GPS is yet another sign of our ignorance that gives us the illusion of control.

That said, since time immemorial humans have traveled and have gotten lost, and in this light, this technology has one other lamentable consequence: it tends to eliminate the surprising, serendipitous and rewarding detour that can occur upon getting lost. Among other things, it all but completely eliminates the need to talk with other human beings, and maybe learn something about a better backroad route that will take you by a great farm stand where local honey or jams can be bought, as well as sometimes remarkable conversations that can be struck up with just the opening line, “how do I get to…?”. If I may use an analogy by way of comparison, the GPS does to travel what the internet database has done to library scavenges. Yes, it used to take a lot more time to find books and articles when you had to prowl the stacks, and I can’t say I altogether miss the experience of photocopying endless piles of articles. That said, what is increasingly lost is the serendipitous discovery of books or articles that may be nearby one’s object, or even just lying along the way to your destination. I can’t begin to enumerate the great books I’ve read as a result of those serendipitous discoveries, and I worry that this and future generations of students will be deprived of that mysterious wonder. To the extent the GPS keeps us in our cars, listening only to a mechanical (if feminine) voice, we lose that magic of the accidental possibility.

And – to the extent that we are further “driven” by demands of efficiency at the expense of potential human community (or passing acquaintance) – perhaps it is, after all, our liberty we are losing, if we understand liberty to involve our capacity to resist the logic and imperative of efficiency. We lose the liberty to get lost, to double back, to be late, to take what may come, and live by standards that are God-given and natural, not technical and scientific.

Brett,
I’m not at all convinced that children are the most creative of people. Many children are creative but so are many adults. And I am talking about adults who are no longer under the tutelage of parents. Children are, I think, a special case.

Furthermore, I think the events that night in Miami count as a fight. But still, I would argue that the possibility of getting lost is something that is good (despite the less than happy consequences described so well by Flannery O’Connor in her unforgettable story http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html) and that fighting is simply a part of human relations (see Item the Fifth http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/?p=3329).

I would not disagree with your analysis that GPS systems will be used for something else. In fact almost all technology has the ability to be used for bad purposes and almost always will be. That is not the technologies fault that is the fault of those who would use it for evil.

You name almost any technological advance and you will find someone misusing it. The movable type printing press is probably the greatest invention in the last 1,000 years (I know many will disagree) and yet it was used to start wars and persecutions. Another way of saying this is that guns don’t kill people but that people kill people.

Responsibility for misuse lies with the people who do it. In this country if the government misuses it, it is all American’s fault since our representatives have allowed it to happen. We as a nation need to take responsibility for what happens (including electing our representatives) and quit blaming other people or things for what goes wrong.

Great post though I would have to disagree with your use of the word “secure.” I would replace it above with either the word “easy” or the phrase “the illusion of security.” That seems more accurate in my book.

As a woman who drives almost everywhere including cross country for many years, I can tell you the last gadget I’m interested in buying for my car is a GPS. So many reasons for this, I cannot count the ways. But one of them I’ve noticed when riding in friends’ cars and trucks is they all get them for Christmas and they’re gone or broken two months later, at most.

I do think cell phones in cars are wonderful. Jumper cables. And on and on. But GPS keeps us in an easy fog as much as it purports to help us.

It goes without saying, though I’ll say it anyway, that those who love maps are morally superior to those who rely on “her”–just as those who travel without either are more superior to both. And those who follow stars are the most superiorest of all.

Proof whereof: think of the story a GPS would have robbed Fr. Sabin of.

I take your point, but I still think that this technology, like any other, has a darkside to it. And while it will increase sucurity, it WILL be used for wrong purposes. I wasn’t saying that a GPS device limits freedom. I was making the point that eventually this will be used for bad ends by somebody. Like cell phones. I grew up in a family of telephone people. My romance with communications technology was over, oh about age 5.
Cell phones have made it safer for people to walk alone at night. However they have made being in public a fustration. To the point public places have to put in jammers to have any peace. Now people are crashing trollies and buses while texting on them. All I am saying, I wish sometimes like the Amish, we stopped and asked ” how will this technology be used?” before we all buy into it. thats all I meant to say.

A part of your article reminds me of raising my children. You stated “But this leads us to a question: is meaningful and robust freedom compatible with a world rendered secure by our technical cleverness? Does a completely secure world have any space for meaningful freedom? In a world of absolute security, or the impression thereof, would we even miss the freedom that has been lost? As long as we can still choose from a variety of goods and services, we will surely think ourselves free. But when we are conditioned by habit to obey the gentle voice of the GPS, our imaginations are reduced to a state of expectancy rather than creativity.” As I looked at this in conjunction with the preceding paragraph which stated “Bureaucracy, banking, and, more broadly, the entire modern cult of the expert draws us in by the supremely confident tones of the practitioners. ” and it made me think of my children.

Am I reducing their freedom and stifling their creativity when I tell them (as an expert?) not to touch the hot stove? If I spank their hand if they reach the hot stove (not had to do yet) am I stopping my child from being creative? You make it sound that security limits freedom and creativity yet children usually have the best creativity and if their parents are any good they are normally very secure. I would also say that the child is still free to do as it wants knowing what the consequences are (at least normally).

In other words I think you have tried to make it an issue of security VS freedom and creativity. I think that one has nothing to do with the other.

I do not own a GPS and do not plan to purchase one but I remember a trip to Miami where I and my co-pilot almost got into a big fight because we were lost and communication broke down. I am sure that a GPS would have helped with that.

I do believe that if a person has something that they have difficulty with they should help cover that up with the tools available. I do not believe that a GPS limits freedom any more than I believe using a fork limits freedom. A tool is a tool it is what you do with the tool that counts.

1. In the news recently, the GAO predicts that the GPS system could fail next year: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/165126/gps_system_could_begin_to_fail_within_a_year.html

2. There are now apps that let you track people with your cell phone (consensually): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/technology/personaltech/21smart.html

3. There are proposals in several states to place GPS devices in every car to track mileage for taxation purposes to replace the gas tax for highway maintenance: http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/12/28/news/community/1aaa02_road.txt

The Garmin gurus have solved this! That insightful little wizard tells which ever one of us is driving exactly where to go in clear and understandable terms.

But I do kinda wonder if the glut of these gadgets will result in whole new generations of people who can’t read a map. Will our children be helpless with some disconnected voice to spoonfeed them directions one turn at a time?

Maps open up possibilities and force one to not only look at where you are going but what else might also be around for a little episodic serendipitous elucidation. How else would one be afforded the opportunity to see the “World’s Largest Walk-in Walleye”? Not to mention…maps are a thing of beauty to be cherished in advance so one is not harried in one’s purposeful journey. To live fully, one must properly plan and only practice dead reckoning as a high art.

And, let us not forget, if we were all to use these little life-fer-ijits devices, one of the great and abiding pleasures of co-piloting womanhood would be dashed: The act of mirthful enjoyment in watching the pending Krakatoa Pilot driving around a-festering because you refuse to get out and ask for directions. Last time I relented at The Concept’s entreaties to pleeze spare her and stop and get directions, I was in a little town in upstate New York and pulled into the first gas station and asked. Thence ensued some kind of relic Arthurian Pidgin from several toothless rustics…a community of Austrapalithicus New Yorkii it would seem…. which made no sense at all so I smiled innocently, tipped my hat and backed slowly out. Then, I pulled into a Kwik Stop and The Punjabi Officiating looked at me with indifference and offered to sell me a map for “tree ninety nine, good deal, take it”. Indignant, I stomped out and drove down to the next gas station whereupon I was treated to some deep anthropological gruntings, primal gurns and furiously waving sign language that would have challenged the great Dead Reckoner Ibn Buttata himself and so I gave up to find a cell phone tower so we could call and get talked into the destination. Leaving the charming little decrepit burg, I was informed of why things were the way they were. There, at the exit, was a sign that proclaimed “Birthplace of Colonel Oliver North”.