140 Environments of intelligence
around me. In the case of using the GPS device, both learning and using it will be
less closely tied to the use of language than for maps. A well-designed device will
help me to track the domain of the signals of my location quite directly, and to
readily apply the appropriate transformations of mapping relations between what
is displayed on the screen and what I see in my surroundings. Still, the cues I use
will be different from natural, unaided visual orientation, and the requirements to
my judgement as to whether I am still on course will be different from both natural
visually based orientation and reading a map. Important topographical features
might be misrendered by a GPS device or a map – which one may visually detect
by comparing what is displayed with what is in the environment. GPS coordinates
might be miscalculated by the device – which will be harder to detect, given that
I normally do not and cannot track the process of calculation within the device.
Concerning the issue of modifying purposes (e 2), the reach of my activities has
changed by allowing, under normal conditions, for rather effortless orientation in
unknown surroundings. In principle, I could go anywhere, and perhaps remotely
interact with other people who use similar devices, without knowing anything
about the topographical features of the place or the presence of those people in
advance. Using a device that provides all the information that I otherwise might
not be able to fill in from observation and experience alone, I am likely to be more
directly guided by such a device and remain more immersed in my other activities than in finding my way. I am likely to behave differently when moving to an
unfamiliar place, in not consulting a map beforehand, or in not asking people for
directions, and, arguably, in relying on whatever the display of my device displays
to me, even if the system is in error.
Concerning the issue of changing informational environments (e 3), if the GPS
device turns out to make my activities of spatial orientation persistently more
complex and less reliable, either for providing ambiguous signals or for its signals, despite proper informational mappings, not being properly recognisable to
me, I will have to resort to other available cues in order to accommodate for
this situation, or else find my plans frustrated. If, however, the use of the device
opens up new opportunities of acting in space and time, and if these opportunities depend on altering the cues I normally use, there will be a more positively
connoted change of my informational environment. The GPS device might make
spatial orientation easier and more reliable after all. Even in the latter case, some
amount of accommodation will be required. I have to learn to use and rely on the
altered cues.
The picture receives some additional complexity in the case of artefacts that are
supposed to keep track of, and react to, my behaviours and include this information into what they display to me, such as in advanced driver assistance systems,
a concrete example of which will be presented in Chapter 9. In systems of this
kind, information is collected and made accessible to me about my behaviours or
cognitive states. Am I about to fall asleep behind the driver’s wheel? Am I drifting off the traffic lane? Such a device may also collect and display information
about my own relation to my environment. Am I getting distracted by my child’s
behaviour just as a critical situation emerges ahead of me? Information on the
around me. In the case of using the GPS device, both learning and using it will be
less closely tied to the use of language than for maps. A well-designed device will
help me to track the domain of the signals of my location quite directly, and to
readily apply the appropriate transformations of mapping relations between what
is displayed on the screen and what I see in my surroundings. Still, the cues I use
will be different from natural, unaided visual orientation, and the requirements to
my judgement as to whether I am still on course will be different from both natural
visually based orientation and reading a map. Important topographical features
might be misrendered by a GPS device or a map – which one may visually detect
by comparing what is displayed with what is in the environment. GPS coordinates
might be miscalculated by the device – which will be harder to detect, given that
I normally do not and cannot track the process of calculation within the device.
Concerning the issue of modifying purposes (e 2), the reach of my activities has
changed by allowing, under normal conditions, for rather effortless orientation in
unknown surroundings. In principle, I could go anywhere, and perhaps remotely
interact with other people who use similar devices, without knowing anything
about the topographical features of the place or the presence of those people in
advance. Using a device that provides all the information that I otherwise might
not be able to fill in from observation and experience alone, I am likely to be more
directly guided by such a device and remain more immersed in my other activities than in finding my way. I am likely to behave differently when moving to an
unfamiliar place, in not consulting a map beforehand, or in not asking people for
directions, and, arguably, in relying on whatever the display of my device displays
to me, even if the system is in error.
Concerning the issue of changing informational environments (e 3), if the GPS
device turns out to make my activities of spatial orientation persistently more
complex and less reliable, either for providing ambiguous signals or for its signals, despite proper informational mappings, not being properly recognisable to
me, I will have to resort to other available cues in order to accommodate for
this situation, or else find my plans frustrated. If, however, the use of the device
opens up new opportunities of acting in space and time, and if these opportunities depend on altering the cues I normally use, there will be a more positively
connoted change of my informational environment. The GPS device might make
spatial orientation easier and more reliable after all. Even in the latter case, some
amount of accommodation will be required. I have to learn to use and rely on the
altered cues.
The picture receives some additional complexity in the case of artefacts that are
supposed to keep track of, and react to, my behaviours and include this information into what they display to me, such as in advanced driver assistance systems,
a concrete example of which will be presented in Chapter 9. In systems of this
kind, information is collected and made accessible to me about my behaviours or
cognitive states. Am I about to fall asleep behind the driver’s wheel? Am I drifting off the traffic lane? Such a device may also collect and display information
about my own relation to my environment. Am I getting distracted by my child’s
behaviour just as a critical situation emerges ahead of me? Information on the