I found this cartoon on the blog of Marnix Catteeuw. If you can't read the text, you can go to his blog. It was originally posted on the xkcd blog.
I fell into the same trap when I was trying to locate a physiotherapist with google maps. I thought it was handy that you can locate them on the map immediately. I discovered later that the good old fat yellow pages had many more referrals than google maps..
Great reminder that good professionals think for themselves and don't routinely follow the instructions..
What puzzles me is why we argue with our co-driver when (s)he gives instructions on where to drive. But we follow the PGS instructions with our eyes shut.
ReplyDeleteAny psychological basis for this ??
Well, I guess we trust the scientific basis of the GPS more than the co-driver... We argued once whether the GPS was correct on not correct, the GPS couldn't join in :)
ReplyDeleteSomehow we placed more trust on technology than human being.
ReplyDeleteSomehow we seems to forget IF there were no human being, there would be no technology.
Who is actually at the back-seat of GPS? ... hundreds, if not thousands of engineers, scientists, administrators, even translators or auditors. Anyone of them make one simple mistake, the chain reactions of that mistake could be many, many mistakes. In most cases anyway. As GPS goes, one can even expect collision of ships in the ocean!
It might be interesting to know why the EU decided to have their own navigation network. It is not so much as removing the TOTAL control from the US, but GPS is not that foolproof.
Cindy