Death by GPS (Story, Question, Story, Warning, Advice)

STORY: Thirty-five years ago, on August 31, 1983, a Korean Airlines flight left Anchorage for Seoul. After take-off, the pilots engaged the autopilot and settled in for the flight. Unfortunately, there was a wrong setting and hours later the plane was 100s of miles off course and in Soviet airspace. The Soviets launched military aircraft to intercept the invader and shortly thereafter shot it down.

Later in 1983, President Ronald Reagan ordered the then-encrypted Global Positioning System (GPS) be made available to civilians.

And today you have access to that system via your smartphone.

QUESTION: Do you use GPS technology, and do you trust it? Of course, you trust it! We need no stinking paper maps!

STORY: “Death by GPS” is the term used by park rangers in Death Valley National Park (one of the most inhospitable places in the U.S.) when people get lost because they follow GPS instructions and not their sense. For whatever reason, the traveler enters a wrong destination and then simply follows the GPS instructions.

WARNING: Although my stories involved computation technology, a more relevant concern is found in today’s use of communication, social media and in our inherent biases as supposedly “rational” human beings. Consider the following:

• All of us are susceptible to Confirmation Bias. We value information (real or made-up) that aligns with our view of the world. We tend to reject information that conflicts with our existing view.
• Over the course of the past 75 years, we have become susceptible to something called the Automation Bias. We value automated information more highly than our own experiences. Think of spell-check, autopilot, auto GPS.
• Humans (yes, you and me) want the least cognitive load necessary to solve tough problems. And so, we follow automated systems in spite of our misgivings.

Now, forget everything I wrote about GPS and start thinking about your use of internet “news channels” and social media.

Do you read things that support your point of view? Do you trust the daily news feed coming to your smartphone or tablet? Do you dig into stories and check the facts?

ADVICE: Think for yourself! We know there are people / groups / nations that want to take us off course. Don’t let them do that to you!