Yet another way technology is ruining our lives: Apparently GPS is changing the way our brains work, at least according to Pinpoint: How GPS Is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds by Greg Milner. According to Milner, our reliance on GPS technology may be altering the actual structure of our brains, which were once used to navigate open oceans using the stars and currents for guidance, not just to ask Siri to take us to the nearest Pizza Hut. Listen to the Science Friday episode here (runtime, 23:03).

And what would happen if GPS failed? The New Yorker tells us exactly what: “The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently determined that, within thirty seconds of a catastrophic G.P.S. shutdown, a position reading would have a margin of error the size of Washington, D.C. After an hour, it would be Montana-sized. Drivers might miss their freeway exits, but planes would also be grounded, ships would drift off course, commuter-rail systems would be tied up, and millions of freight-train cars with G.P.S. beacons would disappear from the map.”