How Did We Get So Dependant?

I had some work in Houston. When I need to go to Houston for work I always drive. I don't much care for airports anymore and it takes about the same amount of time when you factor in time getting to the airport, going through security, getting off of and back on the ground etc.

So I'm driving to Houston and as I am nearing Madisonville I notice my GPS says I'm going 76.4 mpg. I speed up a bit and it's still 76.4. I slow down. Same speed. I reach over, turn the GPS off and turn it back on. It boots, reboots, reboots, ...

OMG! my GPS is DOA on I45.

Suddenly I'm filled with self doubt. How will I ever find my hotel and the HP campus? What can I do? I have to admit I was a bit concerned.

Then my mind wanders back to earlier in my life when rather than using trigonometry to triangulate off of 3 or more satellites in a geo-stationary orbit to figure out where we were and where we were going, we used to have these big atlas books in our cars. No google maps. No full color print outs telling us where to turn and no voice on the GPS telling us what was happening in 400 yards.

Hard to believe but we still arrived back in those days.

Well, I got there (after being lost for over an hour) and I got home.

Fortunately my little daughter gave me a new GPS for Christmas (when I thought I had one - you don't suppose she snuck into my car and...Nah!). I've been charging it up today and it will likely go into the car this weekend. My soul will be in more comfort when the TomTom talks to the satellites again so I don't have to try to remember how to work one of those atlas books!

How did I ever get so dependant on the technology?