You are never lost in any place on the globe. You can always make your way home. Just the safety radiating from that. The way people suddenly feel/are more able to leave their local area is in itself a massive change in our lives. 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” would be considered 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 it has happened so fast and in 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.
You are never lost in any place on the globe. You can always make your way home.
True for deep wilderness roamers, pilots and shipfarers, I’m sure. Nobody else will be lost because they’ll have signage/mobile signal/etc.
Finding way to any other place has now become nothing but a question of entering an address in a phone.
Sure. But without GPS it would become nothing but a question of entering… two addresses in a phone.
I always have up to date information about most of the world
I am able to find my way to any place, anywhere.
Your maps are always up to date
An entire experience of being in a place you do not know, no longer exists.
None of this is related to GPS. Modern internet-updated maps have fundamentally changed the way I live my life.
I think this hugely conflates GPS with modern maps/internet and automated road pathfinding (which existed long, long before GPS). Or are we just crossing wires with our semantic terms?
I’m not denying GPS has great uses. I’ll totally concede long-distance travel and delivering stuff is quicker and easier, that’s great and cool. I’m sure the same applies to warfare. They sure impact me, but increasing the efficiency of delivery by 20% doesn’t fundamntally alter my life.
If GPS went out tomorrow, I’m sure many industries would be thrown into some chaos, but I wouldn’t be personally affected, like, ever.
You literally are. I take pains to describe how even if you truly would have no personal difference in how you move thru the world, the itself has been changed in so many ways that do impact you, and all you can respond with are repetitions of arguments I’ve already illustrated as being based on flawed premises and then trying to do some wack attempt at engaging in semantics.
You can drape yourself in as sad a coat as you want for being rightfully called out, you’re still being a shitty debatebro
Mostly dead reckoning i.e. knowing where you started, your acceleration, and the equations of motion. It’s actually still how most missiles work, AIUI few have the ability to receive time signals from a satellite while in motion.
I thought you were talking about ships and was about to introduce you to the chronometer.
knowing where you started, your acceleration, and the equations of motion. It’s actually still how most missiles work, AIUI few have the ability to receive time signals from a satellite while in motion.
Kinda rad, if it weren’t for the thing it’s used for
Yeah I believe it, but its kinda funny that they end with some grandstanding about having to protect the average American from… Iran spoofing the GPS of a cargo ship that, let’s be honest, probably was in Iranian waters?
Yeah its hard to say, but whenever I hear about Iran being ‘agressive’ I always end up thinking about that image cataloguing a bunch of American military bases surrounding it.
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.
You are never lost in any place on the globe. You can always make your way home. Just the safety radiating from that. The way people suddenly feel/are more able to leave their local area is in itself a massive change in our lives. 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” would be considered 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 it has happened so fast and in 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.
True for deep wilderness roamers, pilots and shipfarers, I’m sure. Nobody else will be lost because they’ll have signage/mobile signal/etc.
Sure. But without GPS it would become nothing but a question of entering… two addresses in a phone.
None of this is related to GPS. Modern internet-updated maps have fundamentally changed the way I live my life.
I think this hugely conflates GPS with modern maps/internet and automated road pathfinding (which existed long, long before GPS). Or are we just crossing wires with our semantic terms?
I’m not denying GPS has great uses. I’ll totally concede long-distance travel and delivering stuff is quicker and easier, that’s great and cool. I’m sure the same applies to warfare. They sure impact me, but increasing the efficiency of delivery by 20% doesn’t fundamntally alter my life.
If GPS went out tomorrow, I’m sure many industries would be thrown into some chaos, but I wouldn’t be personally affected, like, ever.
Damn I spent all this time typing this out for you and turns out you’re just being a fecetious debatebro. Sad to have wasted my time.
I’m really not, but aight, just assume bad faith I guess.
Either you’re being obstinate or we’re just talking across purposes. I’mma out 'cause this conversation now sucks :(
You literally are. I take pains to describe how even if you truly would have no personal difference in how you move thru the world, the itself has been changed in so many ways that do impact you, and all you can respond with are repetitions of arguments I’ve already illustrated as being based on flawed premises and then trying to do some wack attempt at engaging in semantics.
You can drape yourself in as sad a coat as you want for being rightfully called out, you’re still being a shitty debatebro
And the guided munitions
Yeah actually how did missiles work before GPS?
Mostly dead reckoning i.e. knowing where you started, your acceleration, and the equations of motion. It’s actually still how most missiles work, AIUI few have the ability to receive time signals from a satellite while in motion.
I thought you were talking about ships and was about to introduce you to the chronometer.
Kinda rad, if it weren’t for the thing it’s used for
Yeah. Forbes. Lol fearmongering expected
It’s funny when it’s a genuinely interesting article and it’s just shoehorned in like that
Yeah. I got to that part and laughed pretty hard. I will say I have no clue on the security of GPS though. 😆
Yeah I believe it, but its kinda funny that they end with some grandstanding about having to protect the average American from… Iran spoofing the GPS of a cargo ship that, let’s be honest, probably was in Iranian waters?
Iranian pirates? It’s the whole projection that a countries criminals are their government that the west like to use. Who knows tbh.
Yeah its hard to say, but whenever I hear about Iran being ‘agressive’ I always end up thinking about that image cataloguing a bunch of American military bases surrounding it.
Or mossad/us/cia making such an invasive virus to hack Irans nuclear program it spewed across the world like wild fire.
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/
Yeah cool! This is a bunch of ways that GPS has meaningfully improved the way some things work. I totally agree with that.