GPS or Lie Detector?

Urbanvox posed the question “Would you rather have a built-in GPS in your brain or a built-in lie detector?“

If I absolutely had to make the choice then I would definitely have to concur with his answer: the GPS. But given the option I would choose neither. Having said that, really it’s more a case of “it depends”. Specifically, it depends on whether I can turn it on and off at will or whether it is always on. If it is always on then “no thanks, I think I’ll pass”.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a lousy sense of direction and I can’t deny that there are times when a mental GPS would be dead handy, but for it to always be on? To constantly be aware of your exact location above and beyond what you can see around you? It all feels a bit too reminiscent of a scaled-down version of the Total Perspective Vortex — “When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, ‘You are here.’“

And don’t get me started on the lie detector. Where do you draw the line? Fair enough, flash the warning sign when someone flat out lies to you but do you really want to know that they are being less than genuine when they tell you “we really must do this again soon”? People lie. People lie all the time; from bare-faced deception to mild exaggeration, complete fabrication to white lies, with intent to harm and with intent to save face or feelings. To know whenever someone was being less than 100% honest would be utterly depressing; it is one thing to know that people lie, it is another to have alarms bells ringing every time they do.

Or maybe I’m just over-thinking this 🙂

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