I used a GPS for directions... how the hell did I get here?

[motion]

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/25/apple-ai-expert-computers-augment-human-failings/

This stuff has the potential to really ruin the human civilization. I'm an old guy and tech is already ruining my ability to think on my feet and solve problems quickly and efficiently.

I can't get anywhere efficiently without my GPS. Use a paper map while riding a motorbike? No thanks.

I don't know anyone's phone number.

I can't remember most people's birthdays.

It goes on and on. I can see a day in the not too distant future when most human's minds are just mush. Their embedded intelligence units will be doing all their thinking for them.

[vash]

preaching to the choir.

i still remember my first ever home phone number. you know the one. the one your parents drilled into your feeble developing brain just in case you need to tell the cop or fireman. i learned it when i was 3 or 4. and i can remember the firing order of a small block chevy.

now? i can barely remember my current cell phone number.
when i moved to my new city, i made a promise to myself not to use GPS maps to navigate. just got lost and wandered. i now know where everything is. my wife is lost. she is best if she went home and then went to various spots. spot to spot..whoa. ask Siri.

[scottmandue]

I hear ya...
I had GPS save my bacon once "major accident ahead, freeway shutdown, take alternate route."
However half a dozen times the same GPS has sent me off on a wild goose chase.
I was on my was on my way to a memorial service and my low tech friend was ridding shotgun, I get off the freeway and my friend speaks up "your going the wrong way." I point at the GPS and he says "screw that thing I know where we are going."
He was right the GPS was wrong.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by vash

i still remember my first ever home phone number.

Oxford 3-5625 was mine.

Cripes, I had to do intra-period inter-company bond eliminations for financial consolidations by hand on the CPA exam. Division and multiplication in my head. It was moderate monkey math but still, you had to do it fast, and with practice you could, "easily". That was 1983.

[JD159]

Originally Posted by motion

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/25/apple-ai-expert-computers-augment-human-failings/

I can't get anywhere efficiently without my GPS. Use a paper map while riding a motorbike? No thanks.

I don't know anyone's phone number.

I can't remember most people's birthdays.
There embedded intelligence units will be doing all their thinking for them.

You hit the nail on the head, kind of.

So what you can't remember a phone number? So what you forget birthdays and your phone reminds you? Map vs gps?? Just open Google maps and read the digital map.

Technology will allow people to free up useless memory hogs so that (hopefully) more time can be applied to solving real problems.

If you aren't willing to adapt, you better hope you die off before it becomes even more pervasive. I'm doing everything I can to try and think a few years ahead because if you blink you are already behind. The future is scary and uncertain but there is no stopping it, like it or not.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I hear ya...

However half a dozen times the same GPS has sent me off on a wild goose chase.
I was on my was on my way to a memorial service and my low tech friend was ridding shotgun, I get off the freeway and my friend speaks up "your going the wrong way." I point at the GPS and he says "screw that thing I know where we are going."
He was right the GPS was wrong.

I recently made a 7 hour drive from Houston to N. TX, a drive I've made many times. Decided to use the GPS in my 2015 F150 just to check it out. It sent me way out of the way twice, adding about 30 minutes to the trip. Made no sense at all what it did ? Kind of destroys your confidence in it if I had to use it to get somewhere where I really needed it.

You guys must not have grown up in the good old days in the sticks, my first phone number was: 191 --- told that to the operator after she said "number please".

[GG Allin]

Drove a truck around the Chicagoland area for 10+ years. Only used a 6 county map book. I used to study that thing like a mental patient. When I go somewhere I have to look on a map to see where I've been. Never do I use a GPS. I can still get around here blindfolded.

[rwest]

I have a loose rule of only using the GPS twice to the same place after that I should be able to find it on my own. Having my "rule" makes me think about where I'm going and probably helps my sense of direction.

[KFC911]

I still remember the serial number from my Schwinn banana seat bicycle from 50 years ago....I was 6 . But I have developed a CRAFT over the years too...

Can't Remember A Freakin' Thing!

I'm fantastic with numbers and things I read....absolutely horrible with names and faces however...

[Dantilla]

I recently read an article(Outside magazine, December 2016) about the studies that show reliance on GPS units withers the brain's sense of direction, which is an early indicator of Alzheimer's.

Use it or lose it. -Your brain, same as muscles.

[stevej37]

I've noticed a lot of under 30's that just don't know compass directions at all. Mention a direction and they get a blank look on there face and ask if right or left.

[rusnak]

I'd be OK with it, if Siri had a voice like Tony Stark's "Friday" and answered "Yes, Boss" to my commands.

[GH85Carrera]

I remember reading an Issac Asimov story back when I was a young'un.

It described the far off future when everyone would be connected to a massive computer and they would carry around their personal scheduler and data terminal. As I remember he described it as the faint red glow of the display of text and numbers. No graphics just text and numbers and certainly not a phone.

Now I think back on how much his imagination under estimated our modern smart phones. My iPhone is connected to the internet of course and I can watch high def movies, and have a video phone call with people in other countries or down the block. It has more computing power than super computers from the era he was living in.

I lived for most of my life without a cell phone and GPS. I could go without if I had to, but I sure don't want to.

[fred cook]

is a terrible thing to waste! Many years ago, my mother bought my dad a small calculator to use at his office. One day when I was there, I noticed the calculator was nowhere in sight. I asked him about it and he pointed to a desk drawer. I asked why he wasn't using it and he told me that he had noticed that his ability to work numbers in his head was being diminished by using the calculator so he put it away. He could take a long column of multi digit numbers and add the columns as fast as he could run his finger down the page! Never knew anyone else that could do that as well! Don't think he ever used the calculator again!

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by rusnak

I'd be OK with it, if Siri had a voice like Tony Stark's "Friday" and answered "Yes, Boss" to my commands.

You can program it to do that, my friend has his Moto programmed with a sexy female voice and to call him master.

How often are you in training filling out forms and they ask for your phone number and people start digging for their cell phone? (not me, that is one number I do have memorized).

I did get a new phone, then had to call in sick... and realized I had lost all my work numbers.

I have lived in L.A. my whole life, yeah it is a big place and there are times I need help finding my way... however it is highly annoying when my wife whips out her phone and starts giving me directions to someplace I have been before.

I'm much more likely to google maps something and print out the directions, but of course if you are away form your computer that is not always possible.

[motion]

Originally Posted by JD159

Technology will allow people to free up useless memory hogs so that (hopefully) more time can be applied to solving real problems.

And therein lies the crux of the problem. I believe people will have a natural tendency to use those freed up resources to bring more pleasure, rather than problem solving. Entertainment, stuff that feels good, etc. The vast majority of people will always follow the path of least resistence.

[RKDinOKC]

Knew my Dad's CB License number, KEH-4697 before the home phone number. He said it would get help faster than our home phone number. Got in trouble in Kindergarten because I told the teacher it was better than the phone number and wouldn't tell her the phone number.

I always use google maps to try to familiarize myself with a new area before relying on the GPS to get me around. Alway check the pictures of the destinations.

Phone numbers, Don't know any phone numbers except for 411, city and state. Always just say, call, the name, and home, mobile, or work.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by motion

And therein lies the crux of the problem. I believe people will have a natural tendency to use those freed up resources to bring more pleasure, rather than problem solving.

My natural tendency...solving the problem of how to bring about more pleasure.

[Jolly Amaranto]

I have to exercise my old brain every time my "smart" phone is updated. I have to learn how to use it all over again. It seems everything in moved or done differently. Can't they just leave things alone so us old curmudgeons don't have to keep relearning everything?

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Jolly Amaranto

I have to exercise my old brain every time my "smart" phone is updated. I have to learn how to use it all over again. It seems everything in moved or done differently. Can't they just leave things alone so us old curmudgeons don't have to keep relearning everything?

We got my 80+ year old MIL a iPhone and an iPad. They operate pretty much the same. My wife has the same setup and can play tech support for her mom. She (the MIL) admitted it was her lifeline and she would never give them up. She reads tons of books, plays some games, does puzzles, and texts more than I do. Of course she has two grandsons and 5 great grand kids all with cell phones so texting is the best way to communicate with them.