Friends
of mine, living in Israel, told me their GPS has stopped working.
“It
keeps insisting we are in Beirut,” they said.
They
called their phone carrier and also the makers of the app, who gave them the
runaround and finally admitted the IDF has been scrambling navigation in order
to foil the GPS-guided missiles coming from the northern border.
Before
they got the real answer, I suggested different possibilities, including an IDF
action, as to why their phone set them in a neighborhood in Lebanon’s capital. My
last suggestion, tongue in cheek, was inspired. “Perhaps,” I said, “you are in
fact in Beirut and you’re the only ones who don’t realize it?”
This
would make a good novel, I think.
This
got me thinking about the real-life couple who followed GPS blindly, which led
them to fall into a hole in the ground. Another family took Google Maps voice
navigation straight into a dead-end desert road.
All
of these would make good stories and should be developed further into tales of
digital worlds replacing our flesh and blood eyes and ears experiences.
And
speaking of the rare but real flaws of digital navigation, our schools have
stopped teaching a new generation how to use printed paper maps. For all the real-time
information they lack, they remain an important tool. For that matter, learning
to orient with the stars should also be part of basic education. Just sayin’.
Because
you never know when the next time the digital masters will decide to re-set our
reality.
Oh,
wait. They are doing it in many ways already.
