Take off the training wheels once in a while:
Turn-by-turn navigation on phones and dedicated GPS devices has made it much easier to travel. However, the reliance on GPS navigation comes at a cost—you never actually learn how to get anywhere. That's a problem.
My world changed when my HTC Eris received an update to enable turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps. I have always been comically bad at navigating. Even places I've been to dozens of times can escape my memory. So having a GPS device in my pocket gave me a lot of confidence to travel.
[...] Recently, I've made a concerted effort to rely less on GPS navigation. Sometimes I will literally just start driving and see what happens. Other times I'll look up my destination in Google Maps first to create a mental map in my head. If I get lost, I can pull out my phone to find my way. I've noticed an improvement in my navigation skills, but why is that?
[...] While some people are naturally better at navigating, it's like a lot of things in life—you just need practice. GPS is like training wheels on a bike. They certainly make it easier to ride the bike, but you don't have to practice balancing. When the training wheels come off, you go down.
If you never navigate without the help of GPS, you're building up a reliance on it. The more you use it, the more you need it. That's why it's important to ditch the GPS from time to time and navigate on your own terms. Maybe you get lost more often, but even that is a great learning experience.
Related journal article:
L. Dahmani, V.D. Bohbot. Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation [open]. Sci Rep 10, 6310 (2020). https://doi.org/10.11598-020-62877-0
Related Stories
The companies include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and TomTom, which together could facilitate a new wave of geolocation apps:
Some of Google's biggest rivals are coming together in a kind of rogues gallery with the hopes of creating new open source services to knock Google Maps from its mapping throne.
On Thursday, the nonprofit Linux Foundation announced its own open project that's meant to collate new map projects through available datasets. And several other major companies have come out of the woodwork to support it in what seems like a bid to finally end Google's domineering geolocation reign. Those companies include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and none other than Dutch geolocation company TomTom.
This Overture Maps Foundation is essentially an open source program for curating and collating map data across the globe from multiple different data sources. So in essence, the project promises it will use the massive amount of global data housed by these various companies and from outside to build up-to-date maps that developers can then use. Linux also promised this new project will essentially level the playing field for anybody looking to develop up-to-date geolocation services or maps without breaking the bank on expensive commercial data that may not even be accurate.
[...] TomTom's CEO Harold Goddijn, said in a release "Overture's standardization and interoperable base map is fundamental to bringing geospatial information from the world together."
Previously: Why You Should Stop Using GPS Navigation
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @08:07PM (1 child)
"Turn-by-turn navigation on phones and dedicated GPS devices has made it much easier to travel. "
It has turned drivers into Ways sheep, who think it's just fine to cut off three lanes of traffic when
a box tells them EXIT HERE.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by weirsbaski on Wednesday October 26 2022, @07:28AM
Drivers have been cutting lanes like that since way before GPS...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday October 25 2022, @08:09PM (15 children)
my wife can't navigate to places she hasn't been at least 5 times.. and even then can get lost.
she sometimes 'feels' the GPS is wrong, and doesn't follow it - then rings me for help to find her way..
Blindly following GPS directions into rivers and lakes is not the way, and google/here/bing sending you up quiet side streets to avoid traffic is also not great..
All depends on if you believe anyone can be taught to navigate.. not everyone can.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 25 2022, @08:58PM (9 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:38PM (8 children)
I've been against calculators in schools for a very long time. I think students should have to get an intuitive feel for numbers before doing everything on a calculator. I think memorizing multiplication tables as well as some of the other related things done at that age still have merit.
As time has gone on, I've started to think the same thing at higher levels, particularly in engineering. Software like matlab has wonderfully simple functions to call on a matrix to decompose it or calculate the inverse: pass it a matrix and out comes the answers. You're now getting further from needing to understand how well conditioned your matrix is or what that means. CAD software has stuffed a lot of simple buttons in to do all sorts of things, like even thermal analysis. This kind of design software does a lot of brute-force optimization where you hope your stimulated annealing algorithms find you that global minimum and you take their outputs and run with them, perhaps not really understanding them at any level. What does this mean? I don't know. Do I really need to know what my car is doing under the hood, or is it good enough these days that when an indicator light goes on, I just take it to someone to hook up to a computer to find out what is wrong and fix it for me, leaving me the intellectual freedom to think ahead and to other things?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Tuesday October 25 2022, @11:10PM
both calculators and their advanced cousins, modelling software are great - for non-critical systems.
I really want to know that the engineers who signed off the stress and load qualities of a bridge did the sums themselves, and didn't just run the simulator until it didn't fall down.
They simulators have a place - after the calculations have been done "properly".
No, most people don't need to know what is happening in the engine bay... or inside their tablet, or even to understand how fantastic it is that a phone in your pocket is a fully functional computer - they don't know what that means.
Farmers knew how to fix plows and windmill driven pumps because they had to - maybe that is the luxury of the modern world.
(see "Pump Six" [goodreads.com], a short story by Paolo Bacigalupi, set in a near-future where no one knows how to repair infrastructure)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @01:34AM (5 children)
I agree that calculators for arithmetic class seem counterproductive. But then so does most of "new math" which always seems to focus heavily on shortcuts that don't scale reliably. To my mind a huge part of arithmetic is to get students accustomed to the basic patterns of calculation, and the rigor necessary to pull it off. If you want shortcuts...use a calculator. The days when you could claim "you won't always have a calculator with you" without being laughed at, pretty much died with the invention of cheap smartphones.
On the other hand, by the time you get into algebra and other actual math classes, doing the arithmetic is no longer particularly relevant - you're putting that arithmetic rigor into learning a new, rigorous language. The calculations are only there to make it easy to check your work. Which is also the reason most math books are designed to give nice integer answers - something that rarely happens in reality, and is mostly abandoned by the time you finish calculus and start getting into *serious* math. Though, honestly, many of those upper level and graduate courses don't involve many calculations at all.
On the third hand, I've also seen some really compelling arguments in favor of starting kids off with algebra rather than arithmetic. In which case you're teaching the underlying principles openly from day one, and only slowly introducing calculations after they already understand the logic behind them. Probably still not good for calculators since they're still at the stage of needing lots of practice at intellectual rigor - that's really not something that comes naturally to most people. But the idea is alien enough to the way I learned that I'm not firmly attached to my position
As for more sophisticated computational and solver packages? I'm all for them. I do think that in most cases you should learn how to do the underlying math before using them, especially since there are some gotchas along the way... but what does anyone really gain by computing an inverse matrix by hand? I mean, other than actual mathematicians that will go on to use that procedure as a conceptual building block for far more complicated mental gymnastics. An engineer just needs the answer. And if you're relying on simulation to perform brute-force optimization... you're probably getting results far superior to what any but the most brilliant and inspired could achieve by hand. Especially now as 3D printing is opening the doors to utilizing far more complex and biomorphic forms, where the math to even accurately describe them, much less optimize them, is well above even most engineers' heads. And the results are far superior to those possible from the simple geometric forms we could reasonably do the calculations for.
But still, you should absolutely understand the concepts at play, if only so that you recognize where the potential gotchas are likely to lurk, and can actually understand the results as something more than the numbers you plug in to step 45.7b
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2022, @03:03AM (1 child)
The trick is in your last sentence. What is the approach to get them to where they are allowed to hit the big "optimize" button? Do they just have to pass some quizzes and tests on the concepts, or do they have to get their hands dirty and build up some intuition and experience?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @04:16PM
Or do you let them build prototypes and actually test them to see how reality compares with simulation, in order to develop some intuition and experience?
Realistically, I don't think anything other than hands-on real world experience is going to build up good intuition. Make sure those classroom problems are always flirting on the edge of a gotcha, so they inevitably get caught by them occasionally.
And honestly, I suspect there's far more situations in the real world where simulations will reveal gotchas that were missed by the sort of simplistic calculations humans can do, than there are cases where hand calculations will catch things the simulations missed. Because when you get right down to it, most hand calculations are barely better than "spherical cow in a frictionless vacuum" approximations.
Learn the tools. Learn their weaknesses. Learn when and how you want to use them, or avoid them. And then let the computer crunch the numbers - that's why we created them. Just remember to still exhaustively test several physical prototypes before you trust anyone's life to it. Because no amount of calculation or simulation will ever be perfect.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Wednesday October 26 2022, @07:57AM (2 children)
Re rigour: If you ask some of the significantly older generation, teaching of mathematics started going downhill when Euclid was no longer an essential part of the curriculum.
From my point of view, teaching people critical thinking is good, and 'intellectual rigour', whether it be from Euclid, formal logic, or even computer programming. Also, giving people the tools to estimate stuff without using a smartphone/pocket calculator/slide rule/book of tables. I recently came across someone who thought they were saving energy by boiling water in an open saucepan, rather than using an electric kettle. That level of ignorance ends up killing people - as evidenced by the number of nurses who cannot do simple (mental) arithmetic and end up giving the wrong doses of drugs: "milligrams and micrograms are the same aren't they?".
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:10PM
It seems to me that none of what you mention actually has much to do with rigor, but rather with knowledge.
mg vs. ug is probably the most rigor-adjacent, but it's a reasonable mistake to make given the number of slight variations we have on words. That's more a matter of not having knowledge of the measurement system being used, and frankly, if you don't know the difference between an inch and a yard, you should never have been hired to operate a ruler in the first place, nor been able to get a license to do so in the first place.
The water boiling one - the kettle throws away around 2/3 of its energy before it even leaves the electricity generating plant, how would you even begin to guess that it's more efficient if you didn't know that you can raise the temperature of water by ~100C with the energy it takes to convert it from almost-boiling to steam? I don't know about you, but as I recall that was something I heard for the first time in a college physics class - I absolutely wouldn't expect most people to know it. Even knowing I'm tempted to run the numbers to see just how much water would have to evaporate before the kettle can catch up.
In fact... if we assume the water is being heated from 25C(room temperature) to 100C, that's 75% of the energy needed to then boil it all away, meaning you could boil away the entire pot for 1.75/.75 =~233% as much energy as needed to just heat it. Which is still considerably less than the 300% energy consumed by the kettle to just heat the water.
Just how sure are you that you're right about that trivia? There's going to be other losses on the saucepan side - radiant and conductive losses that the kettle wont have, assuming it's insulated. And some heat will just never make it into the pan in the first place. But since you're only actually boiling away a small fraction of the water, it still looks like the odds are strongly in its favor. Or did I overlook something?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:20PM
It started to go downhill rather quickly when we started to let the students make demands on the teacher for more than just answering their questions and providing performance feedback. It's rather unfortunate, but it's going to be kind of dull and hard at times, that's an essential thing to learn to deal with if you're ever going to amount to much of anything. Yes, the older style of lecturing for long blocks of the class did have issues, but with the time available, you're not going to be able to make everything an engaging activity and still meet the standards that the relevant standards agencies have set forth to meet.
Now, if you're going to give the teacher more than 5 hours a week plus a couple hours for homework, you can do more in terms of having fun.
As far as intellectual rigor goes, that's a pretty broad term. All it really means is that you know what the steps are to solve the problem and why they're the right steps. It does not imply the ability to take that more than a step or two beyond what was being taught and probably not any further than what was taught.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 27 2022, @02:54PM
How much were the apples? <click> <click> <misclick> <click> <click> One million dollars each!
"Turn left now". OK, I'm on a bridge, but if you say so...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @03:13AM (4 children)
Yeah, I've known people like that. One recognized that her sense of direction was *always* wrong, so she'd come out of a store heading for her car, turn one way, stop, remember she was always backwards, and go the other way...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:22PM (1 child)
Being consistently that wrong implies that on some level she did have the ability, the interpretation was screwed up for one reason or another. Being consistently wrong in the same fashion is almost as good as being consistently right. Where we have issues is where it's not consistent. I personally have an incredibly hard time remember when there's exactly 3 options. I'll get that consistently wrong even where 2 or 4 possibilities isn't a problem.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday October 28 2022, @06:58PM
As I think about this, it occurs to me that directional sense and spatial relations come out of the same brain wiring....the people I know who invariably go the wrong way also have zero concept how to efficiently pack a box, and literally cannot see how things fit together to use the available space.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday October 28 2022, @04:27PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday October 28 2022, @07:03PM
Directions: turn left at the cow....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Tuesday October 25 2022, @08:46PM (15 children)
If I have to go somewhere where I know how to go, I don't need a GPS.
If I have to go somewhere where I have never been before, the GPS is basically the same as a folding map, just faster and more reliable.
If I have to go somewhere once, why the fuck would I want to learn the way to get there instead of having a GPS show me the way?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:43PM (1 child)
It's very useful to know how to use a map. Using GPS is essentially like using a calculator to do arithmetic. Except, if the calculator also told me all the steps it would take to get from (500x123)+(12/4). Could I do that in my head. That likely depends on how screwed up my day has been. A map is not terribly useful for a driver. Whereas having a phone with GPS, or built-in GPS in your vehicle is like having a reasonably competent Navigator in the passenger seat. Still, I usually end up playing Navigator for my wife. I don't like to drive much and she has issues following the directions given by the GPS device.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Wednesday October 26 2022, @07:01AM
I can already use a map. I had to learn how to use one very well during my military times to hit my targets. And frankly, considering the quality of the civilian maps you can buy, this is like telling an artist he should try a paint-by-numbers project to hone his painting skills.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:48PM (2 children)
I think that I disagree with you. But, let me verify what I think you mean first.
Do you look at your GPS equipped device, and study the map before you start, and remember which way to turn? Then you turn off the device, and put it away. Or, do you leave the GPS equipped device turned on, while it tells you which turn to make, and when?
If the former, I can agree with you. You studied the map, remembered the route, then you made decisions along the way, based on observations.
If the latter, then all the thought processes are entirely different. Listening to a voice telling you when and where to turn is nothing like thinking out, and planning your route.
I learned to navigate with real folding maps. I rather like mapping programs, such as Mapquest, with which you can very quickly plan multiple routes, and decide which of those routes is best. I positively hate a GPS device telling me constantly which lane to be in, blah blah blah. IMO, the best of all possible worlds is, using Mapquest to plan your route, or planning a couple different routes, then print it out, and carry the printed map with you. If you make a wrong turn, or get confused, you have the map to re-orient yourself. But that infernal annoying voice is absent, and you're thinking as you drive.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by tbuskey on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:12PM (1 child)
Who turns the voice on?
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:52PM
My wife and kids do. I just assume that other people do as well? Maybe not . . .
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:52PM (7 children)
It's not more reliable than a folding map. GPSes can wear out and break. The flash memory can develop errors. If they're battery powered, the battery can die. If powered from the vehicle, the cables can wear out. Or there can be errors in the data. It's always best to have a backup plan.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:03PM (3 children)
Good thing paper maps can't get coffee spilled on them. Or catch on fire. Or have kinds in the back seat puke on them. Or fall on the floor and get covered in rain/snow/mud.
(Score: 5, Funny) by kazzie on Wednesday October 26 2022, @04:22AM (1 child)
Remind me never to take a ift in your car: it sounds like a dangerous place.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday October 26 2022, @04:22AM
*lift
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:24PM
If the map is that important to your survivle, it should be printed on something that's resistent to that, laminated or kept in a water-resistant pouch. If you do that, then all you need is some form of compass to go along with it if you're not in an urban area with signs to indicate streets. If you've got that, then you probably don't need the compass as each individual intersection is just about as good for navigation. That is, unless there's been changes to street names since the map was printed.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday October 26 2022, @07:03AM (1 child)
Good idea, I'll pack a second GPS device.
But yes, I agree, you should make sure that your equipment works before you depart on a journey. Whether your equipment is a GPS device or a paper map, make sure that everything works well enough to get you to your destination.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @01:34PM
I mean, usually the Wife and I have our phones with us and one of our vehicles has GPS built-in. So, that's 3x GPS devices, most of the time. Now, if your vehicle doesn't and you're single or mostly drive alone. It could be useful to have a secondary GPS device. Though, that's probably more redundancy than most people need.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:19PM
A map can fail in many ways as well. - tears, spills, wind snatching it away, etc.
My backup plan is the same in either case - follow the signs to get as close as I can, and then ask someone for directions. Repeat until I arrive at my destination, or at least someplace I can replace my map or charger. Though frankly, given the cheap price, a road atlas is a good backup for both. So long as you store it someplace it won't be hit by the same spill that killed your GPS and map...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 25 2022, @11:12PM
Most GPS assisted trips for me start out with me knowing how to get 90+% of the way to the destination, just wanting help on final approach. GPS can also be great for handling unplanned detours. However, I wish the damn thing would shut up until that final approach stage, I really don't need turn by turn directions from my home to the freeway.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:15PM
Indeed. However, once I thought I new an area well; I had grown up in Cahokia. My daughter and I drove down there to visit my mother in Belleville. Leila wanted McDonald's and I didn't know Belleville well (I still don't) so we went to Cahokia.
They had changed all the highways around. A railroad crossing that had taken two friends of mine, years apart, was an overpass and I had a hell of a time finding that McDonald's. But since I'm half a century older than GPS...
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:31PM
I've been on both sides of this. I was on a hike once, and could swear I was going the right way. Companion is like, "no, that way". In a democracy of 2 you defer to confidence I suppose. I did, and he was right. I have no idea how I got turned around. Roads that are labeled "east/west" but have curves that go for miles... I live next to one, and really have to force myself not to think of it as a "north/south" route, or to think that I live east of town when I really live northeast of town and can plainly see it based on our good friend The Sun. Landmarks can turn you around so easily, and signs can confuse you; but the bigger the landmark is the harder it is to lose track of it. The Sun is about as big as it gets, but a valley is good too and that brings us to the time I was in the right.
It was a much larger group, and the real peril was that we had a Boyscout amongst us who was wrong. In a larger quorum though, consensus and logic won out over confidence. We splintered briefly in to two groups, with my group being in the right--the valley was on our right heading out, it needed to be on our left heading back. The sign guiding us back to a parking area with the same name as the park was for a different parking area, not the one we parked in. You needed to ignore that sign. Eventually the Boyscout came around too and we got back to the proper lot.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Quicksilver on Tuesday October 25 2022, @09:46PM (15 children)
In general any time you automate a human ability people will tend to lose that ability.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 25 2022, @11:17PM (12 children)
It's a Cyborg weakness... Dependence on their augmentation.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:22PM (11 children)
I'm a cyborg. My vision was 20/200, meaning that I could read a sign at 20 feet that a normal sighted person could read at 200 feet, and my cybernetic implant gives me 20/16 vision at all distances. I'm 70 and don't even need reading glasses.
Someone I know became a cyborg yesterday when he got a knee replacement. I need a shoulder replacement but don't think I can afford it.
Cyborg weakness? Hardly! I'd say you're going to have to come up with some pretty damned convincing evidence to get me to believe your unfounded statement.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:59PM (4 children)
I had 20/10 vision in one eye, something like 20/7 in the other until my very late 30s - then came presbyopia. I understand they have drops for that now... not sure if I want to go chronic pharmaceutical, or the more traditional cybernetic implant. Meanwhile, I'm patching with eyeglasses and periodically re-evaluating how much the cataract annoys me.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday October 27 2022, @03:11PM (3 children)
The newish lens replacements (patent expires next year) implants cure myopia, presbyopia, cataracts, and astigmatism. Age 70, no corrective lenses at all.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 27 2022, @04:40PM (2 children)
Yeah, it is like this all over, I have been a candidate for knee surgery for the past 40 years, but during those 40 years they keep improving their technique etc. such that it always seems to make sense to wait a little longer - my "candidate" status isn't nearly as bad as the 6+ month recovery periods I have seen family and friends endure post-op for "simple, routine" knee procedures.
The eye with the "bad" cataract is also the one that can focus clearly at phone-reading distance, and the cataract only really casts a mild light scattering over the field of vision - most noticeable at night around bright lights, not noticeable at all when reading the phone (with no corrective lenses). So... wait a bit more for either cheaper, or "next gen improved" lenses, because there's always that bit about "we're only practicing on you, no guarantees on the outcome."
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday October 28 2022, @01:19PM (1 child)
The eye with the "bad" cataract is also the one that can focus clearly at phone-reading distance
The cataract in the left eye was caused by steroid eye drops prescribed by a phusician for pinkeye, and since I had been severely nearsighted since the second grade (too much close work as a child causes myopia, which is why few kids wore glasses when I was young, but now they all do), that's how it was for me.
The cataract will only get worse with age. 16 years after the left eye's implant, my right eye is truly blind, I can only see vague blobs of color with it. I need to get that one fixed now.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 28 2022, @02:48PM
>my right eye is truly blind, I can only see vague blobs of color with it. I need to get that one fixed now.
See, when I start feeling: oh, that's a cataract, I should get that fixed, then I remember that my eye with the "bad" one is still quite functional, just not the same as when I was 20-30 years old.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:30PM (5 children)
Yeah, but how tough are you if your cybernetics stop working?
For corrective cybernetics it's often a relatively easy choice - you're replacing something that isn't really working anyway. For augmentative it's a different question. Especially if you're young enough that the cybernetics will almost certainly need to be replaced multiple times since they don't have the body's ability to self-repair.
Also, are you talking an artificial lens, or something more significant? Because that would be a bit of cool tech that I managed to miss.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:26PM
Don't worry, he's figured that out, he's already read all the Daredevil comics to know how to navigate blind.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday October 27 2022, @03:09PM (3 children)
Augmentive cybernetics are far enough in the future that I won't see them, and you may not, either. I have yet to see any science fiction that has any augmentive cybernetics that have uses that overcome their limitations. Cory Doctorow takes it to some silly extremes in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom [mcgrewbooks.com]. Of course, Star Trek's Borg are really, um, you want to be one?
Unless, of course, you're considering an automobile a cybernetic augmentation, but a cyborg has to have the device inserted inside him or her, not be inserted into the device.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday October 27 2022, @03:57PM (2 children)
There aren't many augments be around currently. Off the cuff I can only think of magnetic field sensing via a tiny implanted magnet, and maybe the military thermal-vision via an electrode matrix on your tongue thing that avoids compromising normal night vision. Hey, if a prosthetic arm counts as primitive cybernetics, I think a prosthetic third eye should too. And I think a prosthetic arm is at least as deserving of the name as an artificial lens or joint - implantation isn't actually a part of the definition.
But that's likely to change as neural interfaces mature. It already sounds like Musk's thing has made dramatic improvements in the hardest part - preventing nerve scarring. The fun thing about working with the brain is that it's *insanely* good at adapting to new inputs and outputs. Wire something up to it even vaguely right, and it'll likely learn to use it properly in no time.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday October 28 2022, @01:12PM (1 child)
And I think a prosthetic arm is at least as deserving of the name as an artificial lens or joint - implantation isn't actually a part of the definition.
"Cyborg" is an abbreviation for "cybernetic organism". The animal and device must mesh. Each must be physically part of the animal. If you've ridden a motorcycle for any length of time it feels like the bike is part of you, but riding a motorcycle doesn't make you a cyborg, even though it greatly enhances your speed.
The IOL in my left eye focuses like a normal lens, or an expensive camera's lens. The CrystaLens was FDA approved only 3 years before it was implanted. A couple years later a physician thought it had come loose, not having heard of a multifocal IOL.
Note that even with all of Stephen Hawking's technical assistance; the wheelchair, artificial voice, eyeglasses, he still wasn't a cyborg. Now, if you lose an arm and technology has allowed a replacement like Luke Skywalker's, with a neural connection of some sort, you would be a cyborg.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday October 28 2022, @02:09PM
Cybernetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics [wikipedia.org]
Cyborg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg [wikipedia.org]
It sounds to me that, dramatic fictional depictions aside, the key element is the existence of a feedback loop, not implantation. And there's legitimate differences of opinion even among experts about where exactly to draw the line. I mean, it's named after steering a ship - even your motorcycle example could probably be argued as being cybernetics, and certainly you could do so for Hawking's chair.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:10PM (1 child)
In modern times we have ways of keeping our brains properly exercised with social media and reality tv.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:32PM
Ah yes. Just like how we keep our bodies properly exercised by spending plenty of time at the buffet and spa.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:19PM (6 children)
I'm honestly surprised we don't hear more horror stories about people driving off of cliffs or in to lakes because a GPS told them to. I'm assuming they happen but the powerful cell phone companies paying for the news advertising space make sure the news never sees the light of day. (Don't forget to download your FREE new/weather/malware app and get alerts because you need alerts! Really!)
I recall one time having to drive with someone who was following a map on their stupid toy cell phone (not turn-by-turn, but still...), going in circles looking for a particular intersection but never finding the turn. They were so hell-bent on their precious cell phone being right, they didn't believe me when I explained it...
The "intersection" was an overpass (with no on/off ramps) and they kept driving under it.
I always plan out where I drive in advance because of details like that. Unless I am familiar with an area, I stick to main roads, not some automatic "optimized" route that might take me through somewhere I should not be. Google Street view and Satellite view are valuable tools. I might print out the route on paper just in case, but if I have to look down at a map of any kind at any point while driving then I have done something wrong.
I do keep a paper map book in the car, but even without a stupid smartphone/GPS, I haven't needed to use it in a long time. It does need updating, not sure where to get new ones any more.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:47PM
> not sure where to get new ones [maps] any more.
In USA, join AAA, they still give out paper maps for free (once you pay the membership). If you need one tow during the year, that roughly covers the membership cost.
I just picked up a nice AAA area map of the Finger Lakes region of NY State, it's detailed enough that it includes a bunch of dirt roads in rural areas between the lakes.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @03:20AM
Probably because not too many roads lead into lakes or off cliffs.
But there are legal streets in Los Angeles that have buildings across 'em... (And if they never decommissioned that stretch of the old highway, one of 'em runs through the Burbank IKEA.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Funny) by gnuman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @09:24AM (1 child)
Maybe Google for it or find it on Amazon, like everything else.
https://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-Large-Scale-Atlas/dp/0528026348/ [amazon.com]
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:32PM
Thanks, but unfortunately neither the small fold-up maps nor the USA atlases are what I need. I'm looking for the Street Guide - 100+ pages and includes detailed maps of the Atlanta metro area and more than a dozen surrounding counties. Just took another look, and unless they have hidden them away somewhere, I still don't see them.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:12PM (1 child)
Turn left in 600 feet. Then continue for 1/2 mile. Ignore any signs that warn that the bridge is closed. Then you will arrive at your destination.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:34PM
You have reached your final destination.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:27PM
...That writing caused forgetfulness: https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-1/socrates-on-the-forgetfulness-that-comes-with-writing [newlearningonline.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:36PM (4 children)
> GPS is like training wheels on a bike. They certainly make it easier to ride the bike, but you don't have to practice balancing. When the training wheels come off, you go down.
I haven't seen a car analogy here in some time, have they gone out of style?
The kids I knew that used training wheels (aka stabilizers in UK) didn't turn into the best cyclists, but they could balance well enough to get places. Most kids here start with a tricycle/big wheel, so they learn how to pedal early. When it's time for a 2-wheeler, I'm convinced that learning to balance first and then adding in pedaling is the correct sequence. In my case, I was put on a 20" bike before I was really big enough, with a parent running along holding on to the seat to catch me...with a number of spills on the grass.
A friend bought her kid a kick scooter (10" or 12" diameter tires) to learn to balance and he was the cool kid in the neighborhood, kept the scooter for several years and was slow to transition to a bicycle...and eventually went on to be an excellent unicyclist (and juggler).
Other choices include "balance bikes" (made with no pedals), or just any kid sized bike with the pedals removed and the seat lowered so feet easily touch the ground.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 25 2022, @10:57PM (3 children)
That's the only way to do it. The kid either toughens up, or gives up. Training wheels are for sissies!!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday October 26 2022, @01:54AM (1 child)
Nah, both ways are for rubes.
The proper way is to start with a balance bike. That way you learn the conceptually complicated part first, the complex interplay of balance and steering (and recovery), with both feet firmly on the ground whenever needed.
Then, after you've really mastered that, you can advance to a pedal bike for the added challenge of moving your feet in circles while you ride, and reaching higher speeds.
As an added bonus, without the complexity of a drive train a balance bike is a less expensive toy for a young child to outgrow within a year or two. They're also a lot less likely to send a child careening into traffic, ditches, etc., and can't get much above running speed - making them far safer for children to ride without supervision. And if there's one thing modern kids need more of, it's unsupervised play time. (well, minimally supervised for young children)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:15PM
This is how my kids, now 18 and 21, learned to ride bikes. When we bought their first bikes, I removed the training wheels and pedals. They spent a few days kicking around the driveway and cul-de-sac learning to steer and balance. Then I put the pedals back on and they were off to the races. It's far more intuitive than training wheels.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:25PM
Same here. My dad had to add chocks to the pedals so I could even reach them.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by Sjolfr on Wednesday October 26 2022, @12:52AM
I spent my younger years living in rural, small town, MN. Nothing changes, land marks stay the same, and everywhere is easy to get to. Still, I get lost ALL the time. I drew the line at circling Atlanta for an entire day, and 2 tanks of gas, trying to get somewhere I had been the day before. Paid $400 for my first garmin GPS. 40 years of trying not to get lost is a sufficient amount of time to come to the conclution that I require GPS. It's a neccessity.
Along the same lines, as Churchill noted, I'm also at the age where naps are no longer a luxury, but a neccessity.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday October 26 2022, @01:06AM (1 child)
It's a fact that not training ones navigation skills is bad for ones brain. Early Alzheimer and such. No, I am not going to provide links - look for yourself.
Having said that, I always drive with Waze. To avoid cops and to estimate steepness of turns. As per the route, I drive my own which may or may not agree with Wase's. It's fun - try it.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:59AM
But how will we find them then?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by EJ on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:38AM (2 children)
Maybe my experience is not entirely relevant since I grew up driving long before GPS was even a thing, but I feel like 3D games can aid this. Playing RPGs (online or offline) can help to learn spacial navigation.
I know how to get wherever I need to go without GPS, but I like using it when traveling so I can just listen to a podcast and not have to worry about missing my exit. GPS can help make the trip more relaxing while allowing me to focus more on the cars around me than what turn I need to make next. My GPS is also good enough to give advance warning for which lane to move into.
Another benefit to GPS (even for places you know how to get to) is finding quicker routes that I might not have considered before. It's kind of like a remote for the TV. Sure, I COULD get up to change the channel, but it's more convenient not to have to.
I think it's perfectly fine to use GPS as a convenience rather than a crutch, but I do agree with the idea that sometimes it's nice to just go down a random road to see where it goes.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2022, @11:20AM (1 child)
Maybe it can help, but they're definitely different skills. I grew up playing video games so I can navigate 3D games pretty well, but I'm not great at navigation in real life. On the other hand, I have a friend who always knows which way is north but often gets turned around in 3D games.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:30PM
Yes, the stored representation may be the same, but in order to navigate in the real world you need some way of keeping track of where you are in physical space, in a game the developers usually give you some hand holding to help with that.
I've been playing a lot of Arkham Knight lately and it's amazing to me how there are some parts of the city where I wind up at constantly, but others that I seem to never see. In the real world, that probably wouldn't be so inexplicable. I don't have a practice of racing around the entire city.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Coligny on Wednesday October 26 2022, @03:01AM (3 children)
How about “you do you” and “improvise adapt overcome” ?
The ‘falling of a cliff’ is anecdotal borderline church lady old wives tales.
Yea, surely happened, but without the gps these people would have found even better ways to kill themselves.
And why stopping at not using GPS ? Next, no Ac, no car, no shoes.
Life is not about scooping down to reach for paralimpycs gold medal.
You have a tool, you use it. No longer have the tool… then improvise…
Some rando shmucknon the interweb don’t want you to use that tool.. how about GFY ?
Today it’s no GPS, tomorrow it’ll be no abortion and next week no contraceptive then abstinence only…
No electricity, no candles, no light at all… then you’ll certainly develop night vision and be able to see in the dark…
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday October 26 2022, @05:41PM
I'm ignorant of any occurrences of the above, but I have firsthand knowledge of google maps sending vehicles down wash roads that are a hard drive in good weather and impassible when it rains. I submitted a request and they've fixed it now, but for several months Google Maps was sending folks down a one-lane gravel road that crosses a bridge that goes underwater when it rains near where I live.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday October 26 2022, @06:32PM (1 child)
I'm not sure about literal cliffs, but just recently I read about a man who was using GPS in poor weather to navigate and wound up driving off a bridge that had been closed for years. In this case, there wasn't even any sort of barrier to stop drivers from doing it either, the only mistake I can identify in what he did was driving too fast to see where he was going. (Admittedly that's a big problem, but a common one amongst individuals killed by GPS instructions)
https://www.kake.com/story/47453430/man-dies-in-crash-after-gps-directs-him-off-bridge-that-washed-away-in-2013-family-says [kake.com]
(Score: 1) by Coligny on Saturday October 29 2022, @02:48AM
GPS tells to drive over a bridge.
There is no bridge.
Driver continues anyway.
At this level a guy that smart and aware of his surrounding would have had the same issue with a paper map.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 26 2022, @02:33PM
My daughter Patty drove, renting a car in Cincinnati and meeting me at my mom's in Belleville (2016 Hugo convention). On the way back she insisted on taking the exit Google told her to take. Had she listened to me and ignored Google (I'd grown up in the area before that interstate was built) and taken the next exit, the 45 minute drive would have taken about ten.
Electronic maps take you the shortest route, which as often as not will take more time and gasoline than someone experienced with the area's route. GPS is for where you've never been before.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Wednesday October 26 2022, @04:08PM
I'd like a working voice interface for real-time map editing.
So I can say: "The next junction is closed temporarily. Find another route" or "That road has a new 'No Entry' sign. I can't use it."
(Score: 2) by xorsyst on Wednesday October 26 2022, @04:59PM
... Have the GPS show the map in 2d North Up. It allows you to follow directions and find places, but you have a clue where you actually are and are going.