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Monday, September 01, 2008

Wrong Way Satnav

So a long lost friend came to visit this summer. He rented a car and also rented a GPS Satnav to guide him (and us) around. It managed to direct him from the airport to our home, so it seemed that things were fine.  It was only a couple of days later that we took both the car and the satnav on a longer journey. We should have figured out there was some problem when it didn’t know the way to Masada! Even the Romans managed to find Masada. You can’t really miss it - it is a big mountain! But Philippa (for this was the satnav’s name when she was speaking in English) had never heard of Masada. Or the Dead Sea! Or Ein Gedi! Hmmm! No matter, we asked her for directions to the edge of Jerusalem and followed the signs from there. (There was one slight moment of confusion when she told us to enter the roundabout and we were driving on an underpass at the time - someone hasn’t updated the maps for a while)!  The following day we went up north via the west and the middle and a bit of the coast. Once again smooth sailing, until she told us to turn left when there was no turn to be made. And then got cross with us for not listening! "RE NAVIGATING ROUTE". She sounded like a Dalek!

But why was she leading us off the beaten track onto all these small sidestreets? There was a perfectly good highway straight in front of us! Perhaps it was some evil alien plot to take over the world after first getting everyone thoroughly confused?

Do you remember that Doctor Who episode? My kids were a bit frightened.

ATMOS is marketing a satellite navigation system developed by child prodigy Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson). The system also reduces carbon dioxide emissions to zero; UNIT requested the Doctor’s help because the technology is not contemporary and potentially alien.

According to Wikipedia

Raynor [the writer of this episode] initially envisioned the poisonous gas would be emitted by factories, but changed it in later drafts to cars for several reasons: the episode would provide social commentary and the idea of an "evil satnav system" was "much more engageable" and "irresistible";

So we had a few nervous kids in the back seat of the car. Only on the way home did we realise that we had the GPS set to take us on the shortest route, rather than the quickest route. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that the machine decided we should at least stick to roads!

So I was thinking about the difference between the shortest way and the quickest way. Since it is now Elul, perhaps this is a metaphor for life. The first (and most important) thing is to have a destination. If you don’t know where you are going, or your GPS doesn’t recognise that destination you won’t get there (and won’t even know that you have arrived if you somehow stumble onto the right path).

Even once you know where to go and you know how to get there, you had better keep your eyes open. Sometimes the suggested path doesn’t fit the road you are travelling. Sometimes the traffic circle is no longer there and you have to take the underpass, or go straight instead of turning left.

Finally, we have to make sure that we are taking the BEST path. Not the shortest (and sometimes not even the quickest - you may have to avoid highway 6 because of the tolls!) but the best path. Shortcuts often take longer. And once you know the direction you are headed, you may be impatient to get there.

We blew the Shofar this morning as a wake up call. Only a month until Rosh Hashana. May we all find our GPS and set the correct direction.

Happy travelling.