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Among the most popular Christmas gifts for adults the last few years, electronic stuff ranks up there close to the top.
Cell phones, video cameras, iPods, game consoles. That's at least for most males — jewelry or perfume would outrank a Wii system for any female, I would think.
The economies of both the United States and Japan (where most of these things seem to be made) would be much worse off than they are if we didn't have these wonderful devices to spend our money on. Especially at Christmas.
Especially popular recently is any device that connects to the Global Positioning System (GPS). Originally developed by the federal government for military purposes, it is now available to the general public for all kinds of other purposes. I really do not understand exactly how it works, but it has something to do with dozens of satellites orbiting the earth, transmitting some kind of information to the devices. The principle civilian use, I am told (I do not own one myself, and probably never will — I am on the “naughty” list at Santa's), is to tell you exactly where you are, and how to get to where you want to go. We must admit, that is important information.
On the other hand, it is not very often that I don't know where I am. I am very careful about wandering off without paying attention. And it is rare that I don't know how to get to where I want to go. I belong to AAA, and have a large collection of their excellent maps.
Perhaps it is the existential idea that is so attractive. After all, two of life's biggest questions are: Where am I? And where am I going? Plus their corollaries: How did I get here? and Why? and How the hell do I get out of here?
A GPS device will not necessarily answer those fundamental life questions. There are GPS devices, however, that can do more than the basics. I have seen special GPS devices advertised that will tell a golfer where the hazards are, how many yards distant they are and how much higher or lower than the tee. You can get one that also monitors your blood pressure and pulse. I have not yet seen one advertised that will find your car keys, locate your car in the shopping mall parking lot or tell you where your teenage daughter is partying with her boyfriend.
In some ways, a GPS is much like other methods of suggesting how to get from here to there. Not just maps, but human advisers give us direction. Our doctors, lawyers, insurance agents, auto mechanics are often advising us about which path to take to a goal. And our religious leaders also answer (or claim to answer) the questions of where we are going and how to get there.
But the GPS is not 100 percent reliable, it seems. The news reports sometimes tell of drivers blindly following their GPS instructions and driving off a cliff where the road ends. The GPS told them incorrectly that the road continued.
One day here on the hill we saw a black station wagon racing up our driveway past the house. We chased it, and caught up with it just as the driver was getting out of his car to open a gate into one of the cattle pastures.
“What the hell are you doing here?” we gently asked. He said they were headed to such-and-such an address on such-and-such road, and had been told “not to stop at the house.” The address they mentioned is five miles away.
“But our GPS told us to go this way!”
The moral: Do not blindly trust anything or anybody that is telling you where you should go or how to get there. Whether it is from a device you found in your Christmas stocking, or from your doctor or your minister.
Richard Packham is a retired college professor and attorney who moved with his wife and son in 1990 from San Francisco to the Dixonville area, where they raise cattle and timber.
Cell phones, video cameras, iPods, game consoles. That's at least for most males — jewelry or perfume would outrank a Wii system for any female, I would think.
The economies of both the United States and Japan (where most of these things seem to be made) would be much worse off than they are if we didn't have these wonderful devices to spend our money on. Especially at Christmas.
Especially popular recently is any device that connects to the Global Positioning System (GPS). Originally developed by the federal government for military purposes, it is now available to the general public for all kinds of other purposes. I really do not understand exactly how it works, but it has something to do with dozens of satellites orbiting the earth, transmitting some kind of information to the devices. The principle civilian use, I am told (I do not own one myself, and probably never will — I am on the “naughty” list at Santa's), is to tell you exactly where you are, and how to get to where you want to go. We must admit, that is important information.
On the other hand, it is not very often that I don't know where I am. I am very careful about wandering off without paying attention. And it is rare that I don't know how to get to where I want to go. I belong to AAA, and have a large collection of their excellent maps.
Perhaps it is the existential idea that is so attractive. After all, two of life's biggest questions are: Where am I? And where am I going? Plus their corollaries: How did I get here? and Why? and How the hell do I get out of here?
A GPS device will not necessarily answer those fundamental life questions. There are GPS devices, however, that can do more than the basics. I have seen special GPS devices advertised that will tell a golfer where the hazards are, how many yards distant they are and how much higher or lower than the tee. You can get one that also monitors your blood pressure and pulse. I have not yet seen one advertised that will find your car keys, locate your car in the shopping mall parking lot or tell you where your teenage daughter is partying with her boyfriend.
In some ways, a GPS is much like other methods of suggesting how to get from here to there. Not just maps, but human advisers give us direction. Our doctors, lawyers, insurance agents, auto mechanics are often advising us about which path to take to a goal. And our religious leaders also answer (or claim to answer) the questions of where we are going and how to get there.
But the GPS is not 100 percent reliable, it seems. The news reports sometimes tell of drivers blindly following their GPS instructions and driving off a cliff where the road ends. The GPS told them incorrectly that the road continued.
One day here on the hill we saw a black station wagon racing up our driveway past the house. We chased it, and caught up with it just as the driver was getting out of his car to open a gate into one of the cattle pastures.
“What the hell are you doing here?” we gently asked. He said they were headed to such-and-such an address on such-and-such road, and had been told “not to stop at the house.” The address they mentioned is five miles away.
“But our GPS told us to go this way!”
The moral: Do not blindly trust anything or anybody that is telling you where you should go or how to get there. Whether it is from a device you found in your Christmas stocking, or from your doctor or your minister.
Richard Packham is a retired college professor and attorney who moved with his wife and son in 1990 from San Francisco to the Dixonville area, where they raise cattle and timber.
