This morning over coffee at The Bean the conversation turned to navigation. One discussant, currently taking a boating course, grumbled about being trained to use nautical charts. "All we need is GPS," he observed. Another discussant related a grounding due to lack of a paper chart on board. I offered the view that GPS is very accurate, but I wouldn't go out on my boat without a paper chart. Nor would I drive anywhere without a paper map.
And I wouldn't use a chart without orienting north up.
It now turns out that GPS may be dulling the ability of humans to picture landmarks, routes and directions in their mind's eye. Today's New York Times summarizes recent scientific analysis in an article, "Is GPS All in Our Head?"
It turns out I was right to worry about relying too much on high tech navigation devices, especially GPS.
Save your paper charts and keep them up to date.
Bring back light houses.
Protect endangered visual navigation markers.
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