Pinpoint: How GPS is Changing Our World

Over the last fifty years, humanity has developed an extraordinary global utility which is omnipresent, universal, and available to all: the Global Positioning System (GPS). A network of twenty-four satellites and their monitoring stations on Earth, it makes possible almost all modern technology, from the smartphone in your pocket to the Mars rover. Neither the internet nor the cloud would work without it.

And it is changing us in profound ways we've yet to come to terms with. Pinpoint tells the remarkable story of GPS, from its conceptual origins as a bomb guidance system to its present status as one of the most important technologies in the world. Yet while GPS has brought us breathtakingly accurate methods of timekeeping, navigation, and earthquake tracking, our overwhelming reliance on it is having unexpected consequences on our culture, and on ourselves.

GPS is reshaping our thinking about privacy and surveillance, and brings with it the growing danger of GPS terrorism. And neuroscientists have even foun