Losing our bearings

A man and wife, perennial arguers, were driving around the West Side as the GPS gave instructions - turn right in 1 block, Turn left in 150ft, turn right in 50 ft. The last one, however, was erroneous or not well correlated with the actual spatial coordinates, as this sent the Landrover into the plate glass window of an unoccupied storefront.

When asked why he took an obviously wrong turn where there was no street, the man said, 'she (the GPS) told me to'.

I've been having similar thoughts for over a year, and anyone who's seen well, any mystery show on TV has seen at least one episode where the killer has reprogrammed a GPS to send the victim to his doom. Common sense went out the window a long time ago, actually. I do agree the lawsuit is frivolous, however, Google will probably settle to make this go away quickly.

Sorry for posting this here, but couldn't find a 'contact' link. Why is The Shallows not available in the UK yet, and when will it be available?

It's still pre-order at amazon.co.uk

On a trip to Waterstones I was told it wouldn't be released in the UK until September.

Can you update us as to what is going on?

Thanks.

Regarding "Losing our bearings". Google has no accountability for their actions even though their map directions create "dangerous traffic patterns". They have seized a major revenue stream from our economy and think they can do nothing wrong. We spent several years trying to get map directions corrected in Lakeside, CA where google is directing traffic from the local Barona Casino through our residential neighborhood. Google does not care.
http://sites.google.com/site/willowroadgroup/

Near the end of your WP article, you discuss the idea that by allowing our navigational skills to atrophy, our hippocampus will follow, possibly leading to other hippocampal diseases like Alzheimer's. Is it possible that the hippocampal neurons primarily controlling navigation are not the same as those necessary to prevent dementia? More generally, can you lose some functions (and mass of a brain area, which are not synonymous but I think that's a whole other question) of a brain area without impacting all of them due to the specialized nature of neurons?

Thismightbescience,

That certainly sounds like a possibility, at least to this layman, and I hope it's true. There is an interconnection among the hippocampus, navigation, and memory formation, but I think we're still a long way from knowing the details of the connections.

(I do, by the way, recommend you read that Walrus piece I linked to; it has more. I also, more broadly, recommend Eric Kandel's book In Search of Memory, which you may already be familiar with.)

Nick

Nick, I wonder if you would be interested in the link below to the FEMP webcast. It is a half an hour long, and seems to integrate a lot of different issues, to do with federal support for employment creation, technology, research and development, and on site power generation. How all of those items can be looked at, as part of one whole contract over an extended period, involving cooperation between private and public sector organisations.

It is the complete opposite end of the spectrum from once-off energy retrofit projects with PV panels on home owner roofs. But when you think about the energy loads of high end research and development, it does warm the soul to think that people might be approaching it intelligently and efficiently. The existing white oak campus has around 1.0 million square feet of laboratory space already serviced by both grid and on-site power. Sorry, if I'm going way off topic here. I know this relates some more to your earlier work like the 'Big Switch'.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/financing/superespcs_fda.html

In Westchester county NY the commuter rail line and the Parkway run parallel, within 25-30 feet in places, to each other. On two occasions st night drivers have turned onto the rail line while either attempting to enter or on leaving the Parkway.Both drivers said they were following their GPS. One car wasn't as fortunate as its driver and didn't survive an oncoming train.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments:

Rough Type is:

Written and published by
Nicholas Carr

Designed by

JavaScript must be enabled to display this email address.

What?