In Defense of Maps

A new book about the future:

Your smartphone will record data on your life and, when asked, will tell you what to do, drawing on data from your home or from your spouse and friends if need be. “You’ve thrown out that bread the last three times you’ve bought it, give it a pass” will be a text message of the future. How about “Now is not the time to start another argument with your wife”? The GPS is just the beginning of computer-guided instruction.

Take your smartphone on a date, and it might vibrate in your pocket to indicate “Kiss her now.” If you hesitate for fear of being seen as pushy, it may write: “Who cares if you look bad? You are sampling optimally in the quest for a lifetime companion.” Those who won’t listen, or who rebel out of spite, will be missing out on glittering prizes. Those of us who listen, while often envied, may feel more like puppets with deflated pride.

I will admit the cell phone 3G internet is very handy while on vacation and trying to find stuff.  That alone was one of my major reasons for switching from my old flip phone (incidentally, I noticed Walter White used the exact phone I used to have in last night's Breaking Bad episode).

But I also remember going on family vacations when I was young and my dad studying the map of wherever we were the night before.  And I don't remember getting lost very often, if at all.  To this day, I notice my father able to discuss details of geography and driving routes of places all around the country.  Also, he would have a more general "lay of the land" approach and not get disoriented.  I feel like when you relay on GPS, turn left here, right here, etc, etc., you are more easily flustered and lost than if you have a broader understanding of the city or area you are visiting.

Not only that, when you become broadly literate on geography, you will more easily be able to navigate foreign places.  I imagine once you learn how to use one subway system, it is much easier to  use other subways systems.

We should apply such principles to the adaptation of new technology.  Yes, they can be useful.  But the old ways should not be fully abandoned.  Although my younger self may have benefited at some time or another from a text message telling me to make a move on a girl, I think I prefer the world in which I had to figure it out for myself.