NavList:

Howard, you wrote:
"That is my point - people can get themselves from A - B - C using GPS - but that isn't navigation - that is following an AI voice through a maze from A - B."

I guess I wasn't clear with my point in my previous message.

Consider this: how many people in the world today are using navigation apps on their "phones" to get from A to B, at least once a week? I would estimate that the number is above two billion. Whatever your estimate, it's a vast number that dwarfs the number of people who could navigate significant distances half a century ago (fifty years, or half a century ago was 1975, just as a reminder to all following along!). Consider another question: among the people in that very large number (your number may not match mine but it will be "very large"), how many of those "app navigators" are smarter than 99% of the people on Earth? How many of those app navigators are smarter than 90% of the population?

Not all people are idiots. Some "app navigators" are, by simple statistical argument, as above, geniuses. Millions are much smarter than average. These highly intelligent "app navigators" do not fit into the c.2010 stereotype about "these kids today addicted to their phones" which so many of us still hold in our imaginations. They are normal people of all ages, and some of them develop real navigation skills as a byproduct of app navigation. They learn! The number of people who can readily navigate over considerable distances today is easily hundreds of times greater than it was before "app navigation". And among those billions, there are millions who are developing non-app navigation skills, on their own, as they go. The number of competent, wilderness navigators --able to get from A to B without apps-- is probably greater today than it has ever been. But I concede that this is very difficult to assess for many reasons...

Of course, some people are idiots, and they make headlines (let's say "page six" headlines) when they demonstrate their navigational incompetence. This also follows from the logic above. In fact, we might estimate that as many as half the people on Earth are less intelligent than "average". Could be... possibly... depending on some aspects of the distribution and how "intelligence" is even assessed (what we're looking for here is "common sense"). But we can safely say that some people are idiots. How do we handle them? Don't get me wrong. Some idiots can have great success. There's a dimwitted, narcissistic fool who is now President of the United States --again. His lack of intelligence has perhaps even worked in his favor. We ignore idiots at our peril. Idiots need navigation advice in the modern world, too.

What is the best advice that you could offer to amateur "idiot" navigators (apart from "just stay home")? Even more difficult, how would we get them to follow any such advice?? Oh, and don't tell me that we should advise them to "use a compass". That is almost never useful, except maybe as a confidence-builder or a form of entertainment. They will use their apps for some of their navigation. They will be significantly dependent on their technology. What tech advice can we recommend to avoid becoming one of those "headline" idiots?

Finally, is the "muesli bar" story just a one-off? Or is there any general lesson to be learned? ...I'm still picturing a bar in the middle of nowhere that serves muesli instead of booze. Sounds like a nice place! Why can't I find it in Google Maps? ;) Maybe we need to pre-position survival kits --with muesli bars-- in hollow trees...? or rain them down on the world's wilderness areas from high-altitude aircraft...?

Frank Reed