Pinpoint
Subtitle: how GPS is changing our world
By: Greg Milner
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 2016
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 316
ISBN-13: 9781847087089
Subjects: Global Positioning System; Social aspects; Geographic Information Systems; GPS; Aspect social
Description: Over the last fifty years, humanity has developed an extraordinary global utility which is omnipresent, universal, and available to all: the Global Positioning System (GPS). A network of twenty-four satellites and their monitoring stations on Earth, it makes possible almost all modern technology, from the smartphone in your pocket to the Mars rover. Neither the internet nor the cloud would work without it. And it is changing us in profound ways we've yet to come to terms with. Pinpoint tells the remarkable story of GPS, from its conceptual origins as a bomb guidance system to its present status as one of the most important technologies in the world. Yet while GPS has brought us breathtakingly accurate methods of timekeeping, navigation, and earthquake tracking, our overwhelming reliance on it is having unexpected consequences on our culture, and on ourselves. GPS is reshaping our thinking about privacy and surveillance, and brings with it the growing danger of GPS terrorism. And neuroscientists have even found that using GPS for navigation may be affecting our cognitive maps - possibly rearranging the grey matter in our heads - leading to the increasingly common phenomenon 'Death by GPS', in which drivers blindly follow their devices into deserts, lakes, and impassable mountains. Deeply researched, inventive and with fascinating insights into the way we think about our place in the world, Pinpoint reveals the way that the technologies we design to help us can end up shaping our lives. It is at once a grand history of science and a far-reaching book about contemporary culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: The Whisper from Space; title: Part I: Calculating Route; title: 1. Tupaia Goes Home; title: 2. The When and the Where; title: 3. Global Reach, Global Power; title: 4. Ranging the Perfect Beet; title: Part II: You Have Arrived; title: 5. Death by GPS; title: 6. The Hornet's Nest; title: 7. Better Living Through Tracking; title: 8. Return from Mid-Ice; title: 9. Tied Together (40.74375° N 73.9835° W); title: Epilogue: Direction Home; title: Notes; title: Acknowledgments; title: Index.