Archive for January 7th, 2010

Just follow the instructions

January 7th, 2010

You have to laugh.

I saw this on the RTE web site -

Gardaí in Offaly are asking people not to use Sat Navs following incidents where several motorists have ended up stranded in snow in the Slieve Bloom Mountains having been directed by Sat Nav.

Apparently people are finding the main roads impassable due to snow and ice, and are asking their SatNavs for an alternative route.  Normally, that would be a logical conclusion, and I have used that facility to great effect myself in the past.

But think about it….

If the main roads are impassable, why would the side roads, and back roads be any better?  In fact I can guarantee they are infinitely worse.

Modern society though has been brought up to rely completely on technology, and even worse, to obey any instruction they are given without any thought.  It has reached a state where people are not capable of thinking for themselves at all.  They blindly follow instructions even though those instructions are patently stupid.

There is a very simple answer to this.

I would suggest that they include a new section in the driving test.

The new section would involve a SatNav system in the test car.  The SatNav would give them clear and concise instructions.  It would direct them up a main road.  It would tell them to turn right at the next junction.  It would tell them to proceed for the next five miles.  They would pass warning signs telling them that it is unsafe to proceed, and that to do so would be fatal.

It would instruct them to drive off the top of a five hundred foot cliff.

I think that would sort the wheat from the chaff?  I don’t think there would be any appeals against a failed test?

The Darwin Theory at its best.

Heh!