Pinpoint – How GPS Is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds - Hardcover

Milner, Greg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393089126 ISBN 13: 9780393089127

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2016

Synopsis

PinpointWhile GPS has brought us breathtakingly accurate information about our planetary environment and physical space, it has also created new forms of human behavior. We have let it saturate the world’s systems so completely and so quickly that we are just beginning to confront the possible consequences. A single GPS timing flaw, whether accidental or malicious, could bring down the electrical grid, hijack drones, or halt the world financial system. The use, and potential misuse, of GPS data by government and corporations raise disturbing questions about ethics and privacy. GPS may be altering the nature of human cognition—possibly even rearranging the gray matter in our heads.PinpointPinpoint

About this title

Review

Milner is a brisk and funny guide.--Konstantin Kakaes (04/28/2016)

[A] welcome guide to where [GPS] came from, what it does and where it might be taking us.--Damian Whitworth

[A] suitably precise and fascinating account of the modern evolution of [GPS]... Milner expertly deconstructs the implications of this monumental shift in human life.--Tim Adams

An informative yarn.--James Anthony

A deeply researched book with fascinating interludes... [Milner] explains the technological principles lucidly.--Stephen Poole

GPS guides our world. Here at last is the amazing and well-told story of where it came from, how it works, and where it--and we--are going.--Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Remarkably engaging... [T]he best business book about technology this year.--James Surowiecki (04/28/2016)

[A] joy to read... It will be a strong contender for my science book of 2016.--Clive Cookson (04/28/2016)

One of the most mesmerizing and exhilarating, yet alarming modern technology books... By any standards, it is an extraordinary tale.--Gillian Tett (04/28/2016)

[A] compelling exploration of how GPS became so ubiquitous--and what we lose when it's all we know of navigation.--Matthew Daddona (04/28/2016)

About the Author

Greg Milner is the author of Pinpoint and Perfecting Sound Forever, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His writing has appeared in Wired, New York, Slate, Village Voice, Salon, Spin, and Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393089126
• ISBN 13: 9780393089127
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336