A few years ago, I saw Captain Cook-looking gear at a friend's house. I knew he like boats, so I thought these were collectibles. Turns out that he was a sea s

A few years ago, I saw Captain Cook-looking gear at a friend's house. I knew he like boats, so I thought these were collectibles. Turns out that he was a sea scout, as a kid. Civilian GPS wasn't available in the early 2000s... at least not to amateur navigators. I think it only became standard for airlines in the 90s and militaries in the 80s. That GPS is new is not surprising. That one tech-generation back is "celestial navigation" with a sextant is shocking (at least it was to me). It was like discovering that before smartphones the closest thing available was signal fires.^ Good reminder that tech can work in big leaps, and that a good technology can last a long time. Moore's law has been such a factor for digital technology, that we can forget it is not the norm. BTW, the alternative to GPS (unless you have a terrestrial signal) for airlines is computerized dead reckoning, the equivalent of throwing a log tied to a rope overboard and counting knots, but a computer counts the knots.