…an informative look at the Global Positioning System…describing its invention, its spread, and the effects of allowing anyone with a cheap device to find both location and route, anywhere on the planet. GPS is so obviously useful, and generally works so well, that it has gone from futuristic to boring in a historical eye blink. Milner wants to rescue GPS from its own commercial success; to marvel at the amazing work that went into creating it; and to inquire about its various implications, both good and bad.

"Remarkably engaging… [T]he best business book about technology this year."

"An informative yarn."

"[A] joy to read… It will be a strong contender for my science book of 2016."

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

"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."

"One of the most mesmerizing and exhilarating, yet alarming modern technology books… By any standards, it is an extraordinary tale."

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

"[A] compelling exploration of how GPS became so ubiquitous—and what we lose when it's all we know of navigation."

"In this startling and persuasive book, American journalist Greg Milner shows how [GPS] saturates our existence... [Milner] suggests that GPS is as potent and pervasive a force as the Internet – if much less well understood."

"Dramatically illustrating just what the GPS might be taking from the human race, Milner recounts the feats of early Polynesian seafarers who traversed wide Pacific expanses guided by nothing but their dauntless minds. . . . [A] fascinating probe into an increasingly ubiquitous technology."

"Through a multitude of examples—from Polynesian navigation to precision agriculture to the U.S. military—the world according to GPS emerges, and with it a new way to understand our own sense of place and time... Milner's detailed examples will leave you questioning the ways in which GPS has infiltrated our lives."

"[A]ssured technological history."

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

"No technology has transformed the human landscape so completely, yet been taken for granted so quickly, as GPS. The reason that brains are so good at storing maps is because the brain is a map, and our collective internal map is now migrating somewhere else. Greg Milner’s Pinpoint is a fascinating chronicle of how this happened and why—captured before the details had a chance to escape."

"Milner is a brisk and funny guide."

"In Pinpoint, Greg Milner gives us a much-needed account of GPS, its history, philosophy, and the overwhelming consequences of its success. Funny, scary, and tremendously readable, Pinpoint will be an eye-opening thrill for anyone who has watched their blue dot dance around an online map."

"Whenever people theorize about the collision of technology and culture, the Internet tends to consume all the oxygen in the room. But there is another global system that's taking over our lives in an even more insidious fashion, with stranger implications for the future of humanity. Pinpoint dissects the modern age of mapping and shows the hidden dangers of a world where nothing is hidden at all."

"Seldom have I learned so much so effortlessly. . . . Every page was a treasure-house of fascinations: my temptation after finishing was to begin the book all over again, there being so much to absorb, all of it crucially important to understanding our world's dependence on one of modern civilization's new-made fundamentals."

"Informative... Pinpoint excels when it makes clear that GPS is an engineering marvel, a global utility and a source of new threat all at once."

"Funny, scary, and tremendously readable." ---Andrew Blum, author of Tubes

"Funny, scary, and tremendously readable." —Andrew Blum, author of Tubes

2016-03-08
What universal digital service is essential to the world's infrastructure and our daily lives? Yes, the Internet, but more fundamentally, the Global Positioning System. Obsessed with the Internet, which depends on GPS, the media has paid little attention, but journalist Milner (Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music, 2009, etc.) remedies this with an admirable popular science introduction, one of the first about GPS. Navigation is an ancient obsession, but Milner dates pinpoint navigation to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957. Although considered a national humiliation for the United States, it galvanized American scientists, who quickly discovered that one could use the satellite's radio signals to precisely find one's location. This concept attracted significant attention from the Navy, which needed an accurate fix for its missile submarines. By 1960, satellites of its pioneering Transit network were operating, although they were expensive, slow, and imprecise. During the 1970s, the U.S. military created a top-notch, multibillion-dollar satellite system entirely reserved for its own use. In 1983, after a Korean Airlines flight strayed into Soviet airspace and was shot down, killing 269 people, President Ronald Reagan made GPS available for civilian use. During the 1990s, the weight and cost of receivers limited their use to shippers and airlines, but after 2000, both had shrunk enough to be a routine feature on cellphones. Thanks to Milner's narrative, readers will learn the technical details without too much effort and marvel at its value, which extends to astronomy, meteorology, seismology, criminology, and agriculture. The author also offers the obligatory warnings about its vulnerability to sabotage, less-than-perfect turn-by-turn advice, and ruination of our sense of direction from allowing technology to navigate for us. Milner has done his homework, assuring readers will be satisfied, educated, and occasionally amazed.