AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Is AI a new concept?

How many of you remember Knight Rider on TV in the 1980s? It starred David Hasslehoff as Michael Knight, a sort of vigilante fighting criminals. He was aided by his car Kitt, that had AI features, here is an overview:

Knight Rider was an American action crime drama television series created and produced by Glen A. Larson. The series was originally broadcast on NBC from September 26, 1982, to April 4, 1986. The show stars David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a sleek and modern crime fighter assisted by KITT, an advanced, artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car.

It had satellite navigation and we all thought “yea right that's never gonna happen”. However it had already been invented in the 1950’s and used by the US military in the 1960’s.

The first satellite navigation system was the Transit system, which was launched into orbit by NASA in 1960. The Transit system was developed and operated by APL and was used by the US Navy to provide positioning for their Polaris ballistic missile submarines. It was in use from 1964 to 1996.

The first in-car navigation system available to consumers was Etak Navigation, which was released in 1985. Etak Navigation used digitized maps that were streamed to the system from tape cassettes.

The first production car with a built-in GPS navigation system was the Mazda Eunos Cosmo. General Motors also introduced a built-in GPS navigation system called ONIS, which was initially available in Avis Rent A Car vehicles in Florida in 1992.

Precision GPS navigation became available to the public in 2000, and GPS-supported technology is now used in many devices, including smartphones and cars.

Sat Navigation

You need me on every journey
To show you the way you should go
Without my expert direction
An A to Z you would have to follow
Navigation, I’m Sat navigation

My voice can be changed in an instant
I can be whoever you want
A man who is very assertive
Or a girl with sweet dulcet tones
For drivers I’ve solved all their problems
No need to ever get lost
unless you’ve not updated my system
Then you could end up counting the cost
Navigation, I’m Sat Navigation

Proceed on current road
Watch out don’t squash that toad
At the roundabout take the third exit
To the channel tunnel (before it’s Brexit)
Don’t worry I’ve got Euro maps loaded
No problem getting back from Calais to Dover

Oops do a U turn where possible
The route your on is impractical
Your trying to trick me and test me out
But I’m a sat nav and there is no doubt
That my robotic intelligence is second to none

Hey watch out you nerd you’ve overrun
This narrow lane and I think we’re done
Your wheels are spinning on a narrow cliff ledge
Proceed on current road.and don’t fall over the edge
Navigation, Sat Navigation, Ahhhhhhhh!

From ‘Rhymes and Reasons’ 2021

Rick Varden (aka the Urban Poet)

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Navigation

Navigation is according to the National Geographic the art and science of determining the position of a ship or plane or other vehicle and guiding it to a specific place. Consequently, navigation requires someone who can work out the vehicle location compared to other locations.

Some methods of navigation have been around for millennia such as the ancient mariners using landmarks or observing the movement of the sun and stars. Minoans who lived on Crete from 3000-1100 BC left records showing they used the stars to navigate.

At sea, mariners use a navigation method known as dead reckoning which uses the course and speed of a ship to determine its position. Piloting can also be used in narrow waterways by using geographical landmarks to determine a ship’s position.

Image of dead reckoning course plot

Navigating on land whether on foot or in a vehicle involves the use of maps, reading the terrain, referring to a compass and landmarks such as hills or buildings to identify location. If you are in a town or city then maps that feature bus routes, train stations and underground stations are also accessed to provide information of location.

Celestial navigation or astronavigation involves the use of the sun, moon, stars, constellations and the horizon using an instrument such as a sextant to calculate position and location when travelling on the open sea which has no landmarks to aid navigation. A navigator needs to be aware of the different stars and constellations in the northern and southern hemispheres. For example, the Southern Cross constellation appears only in the southern hemisphere and the Plough constellation appears only in the northern hemisphere.

Other forms of navigation include the use of a satellite system called global positioning system or GPS. This system is owned and financed by the American government’s Department of Defence but anyone with a GPS receiver can use it. The GPS is a form of radio navigation and provides very accurate location and position information for the GPS receiver. This form of navigation can be used at sea or on land.

Navigation is not confined to travelling on land, sea or air. People navigate their way around their email inbox identifying which emails to answer, which to prioritise and which to ignore and/or delete. Indeed, people now have to navigate their way around websites of all descriptions whether in work or for personal use.

In fact, there are four types of website navigation. The first is the top menu which is the main website navigation bar usually at the head of the website page. The next navigation aid is the footer menu which may have a lot of information or just basic site information.

Image of footer menu navigation aid

The third type is the side bar which is used in ecommerce and information heavy sites such as blogs. The sidebars can be on the left or the right of the screen page. The fourth type of website navigation is called breadcrumbs which are hierarchical that show how pages are nested within each other. Breadcrumbs are good for helping users find their way around within a website of specific interest to them such as online shopping websites.

Indeed, any organisation or business uses navigation to identify issues, plot course corrections and develop new ways of implementing services or products. Governments too, whether local or national, also use navigation tools to find out what voters are thinking regarding policies or voting intentions in a forthcoming election.

These methods can include focus groups, survey research using samples and populations, opinion polls, mail surveys, telephone surveys, interest groups or lobbying and protests such as marches to measure public opinion. From these methods policy documents, laws and manifesto declarations can be identified and implemented.

Which brings us to the present day and the current government is preparing to navigate its way around the ongoing unrest in Britain over issues such as legal and illegal immigration, open borders, two tier policing, the integration of communities with conflicting and contradictory belief systems, the axing of winter fuel payments for pensioners, net zero costs and the impending increases in taxes for the people of Britain.

How the Labour government navigates its way around these issues will determine whether it remains in power. The future of Britain as a stable, unified and functioning country is at stake as it could all too easily descend into a balkanised failed state.

Navigating the Alphabet (children’s poem)

To get from A to B to C
I’ll have to take a compass
with me and D to E to F I’ll need
a map but I’ve left it on the
shelf. So from G to H to I I’ll
be guided by the sun in the
sky. From there I’ll travel to
J and K and L so I’d better make
sure I locate a hotel and after a
hearty breakfast it’s off to M and
N and O where I’ll have a much

better route to go. Then on to
P, Q and R and a night spent
reading the stars and off to S
T and U where the cliffs and
the sea provide an amazing
view and onwards to W, X, Y
and Z where after a tiring
day out it’s time for bed. And in
the morning it’s all the way back
to A, B and C for you and me.

Thanks for reading and please leave a comment as they are always appreciated. Dermot.

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