Over-reliance on technology might kill you . . .

I noted a link on the Drudge Report today to a France24 story that scientists were warning of a 'dangerous over-reliance on GPS', or the Global Positioning System.

The Royal Academy of Engineering said the application of the technology was now so broad -- from car sat-navs to the time stamp on financial transactions -- that without adequate backup, any disruption could have a major impact.

It cited a recent European Commission study showing that six to seven percent of economic growth in western countries -- about 800 billion euros ($1,100 billion) in the EU -- is already dependent on such navigation.

. . .

Disruption could come from technological problems or from deliberate interference, by criminals using small-scale jammers to avoid road tolls or block the tracking of cargo, or terrorists seeking to attack entire systems.

The report also warns of political interference, such as when North Korea reportedly recently disrupted South Korean military communications.

"A significant failure of GPS could cause lots of services to fail at the same time, including many that are thought to be completely independent of each other," said Martyn Thomas, who led the academy's work on the issue.

The US-operated Global Positioning System is currently used for everything from commercial aircraft and the tracking of cargo to the opening of train doors at stations.

The report said all these are vulnerable, with consequences ranging from "the inconvenient -- such as passenger information system failures -- to possible loss of life -- such as interruptions to emergency services communications".

There's more at the link.

It's not just over-dependence on GPS that worries me. I've said this about technology in general for many years, beginning with my military career, continuing with my involvement in computer hardware and software for major corporations in another country, through to service as a prison chaplain. I've seen more and more reliance on technology in every field, to the extent that it's displaced many skills that were once taken for granted as the norm for anyone claiming to 'know his stuff'. Consider these areas:

• How many sailors - the recreational variety, those you see off the coast of the USA every day - know how to 'shoot' a star sight? How many can even take and plot a bearing on a coastal landmark? Do they have a compass on board? Could they navigate at all if their GPS systems went down?
• Miss D. tells (profanely!) the story of the pilot who called her (via satellite phone) from a sandbar somewhere in Alaska. His GPS system had failed, and he'd hurriedly landed before he became even more lost. He wanted her (sitting in Anchorage) to tell him where he was. After all, Alaska covers a mere 663,268 square miles - surely she, whom he regarded as a 'technology guru', could tell him where, in that expanse, his current sandbar was located? (Her re-telling of the story becomes a little less than polite at this point . . . but yes, she was able to get him to reorient his GPS and find his way back to base!)
• Veterans of military service will recall the old truism: "The most dangerous creature in the world is a newly-minted Second Lieutenant with a map, a compass, and a plan." Nowadays that's changed to "a map, a GPS receiver and a plan." Many of the Second Lieutenants I've met (fortunately, not all of them) wouldn't recognize a compass if it jumped up and bit them on the butt!
  
• According to PhysOrg.com, 'The average U.S. soldier on a 72-hour patrol carries between 10 and 20 pounds of batteries. There are seven kinds of batteries that power flashlights, GPS devices, night-vision gear, and other equipment considered essential for the modern soldier. Including spares, a soldier lugs 70 batteries, along with the devices themselves, weapons, food, water, and other necessities. All together, the modern soldier is carrying so much weight that it can interfere with his mobility and lead to injuries. "We’re seeing pack weights of 130 pounds these days," said Sharon Burke, assistant secretary of defense for operational energy plans and programs. "You can’t carry 130 pounds without turning up with injuries." '
  

In my military service, if we carried more than 60-65 pounds (including a full combat load of ammo), we bitched like hell! We had to cover more than 20 miles a day, and sometimes fight during or after that march. I just can't imagine what it must be like to carry more than twice that load - and fight while doing so!

Similarly, we had to learn to fight without technological aids. We had them, sure, but we were taught that they were to be used while they worked, but not relied on, because Murphy's Law was alive and well and living in the Army. Sure as shootin', sooner or later, every technological bell and whistle we had was going to break - no ifs, buts or maybes about it. When that happened, we'd better be ready, willing and able to fight on without them . . . or we were likely to die. Are US soldiers trained and able to do that today?

I do worry about what will happen to modern civil society if we suddenly lose the basic technological infrastructure we've come to depend on. Solar storms threaten satellites in orbit and power transmission networks. One nuclear explosion at altitude over the USA would produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would destroy or damage almost every item of electrical and electronic equipment in the country. How would we cope without them? Could we cope without them? I daresay I could, if I had to . . . but I fear many younger people today have never learned the skills I grew up regarding as basic, normal and essential.

Peter