Out standing in a field in Italy
When the sat-nav system decided to send me up a rutted farm track in northern Italy, I may have used a few words which the casual passer-by, (were there to be casual passers-by in middle-of-nowhere Italian fields), might have taken to suggest that they would be well advised to have less than total faith in and admiration for the Global Position System (GPS) and the manufacturers of sat-nav devices.
However my imaginary Italian friend would have been wrong, as for every time it is necessary to berate the technology there is a thousand times when it guides me faultlessly to places that might otherwise have caused wasted hours, heart attacks and relationship breakdowns trying to find. If there is one thing that is wrong with sat-nav systems, it is that they reduce the chance of those wonderful accidental "finds" when you are hopelessly lost but in no hurry to be anywhere. But you still have the choice of switching off the machine if you really want to get lost.
Unfortunately it is a choice that might soon be denied to you, as the US Air Force satellites that provide the GPS system have been allowed to become a bit neglected of late and may start dropping out of the sky any day soon. The launch of replacement satellites has been delayed.
In all likelihood the worst that will happen is that the GPS system may become a bit hit and miss for a while; it will not fail entirely or permanently. However that it has been allowed to come close to failure demonstrates yet again that mankind no longer values technological innovation and exploration in the way we once did.We should not merely be renewing the GPS satellites, we should be replacing them with something better. But at least that technology is holding its ground; in so many other arenas it is going backwards.
Where once we had Concorde, now we have Ryanair: rather than attacking technologic barriers to build faster, better and cleaner airplanes, mankind is settling for cheap and nasty. When once Europe boasted of its cities of lights, energy saving glimmer sticks are now being imposed on the continent's citizens: instead of seeking new and improved sources of energy Brussels bureaucrats decree that we should all stumble around in the gloom.
In the past when a new company wanted to enter the car market it had to offer something faster, sexier or more useful: now they just buy a tired European brand name.
Where once we had adventurers and derring-do, now we have liberals, nerds and risk assessment. Even the Royal Geographical Society has decided to give up helping people actually go and explore the world as expeditions through jungles and over mountains might be a bit dangerous or could be seen as jingoistic.
We have lost our sense of wonder and adventure, and instead accept a culture of make do and stumble on. Is it just me who thinks mankind is the poorer for accepting this diminished outlook?
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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