Editing 2547: Siren
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| + | {{incomplete|Created by ODYSSEUS’S BROKEN GPS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
{{w|Odysseus}} is the hero of the Greek epic ''{{w|Odyssey}}'' by {{w|Homer}}. This is a poem that relates the journey of Odysseus back home to his homeland from the newly defeated Troy, and how he inadvertently angered Poseidon thus causing the journey to take 10 years. | {{w|Odysseus}} is the hero of the Greek epic ''{{w|Odyssey}}'' by {{w|Homer}}. This is a poem that relates the journey of Odysseus back home to his homeland from the newly defeated Troy, and how he inadvertently angered Poseidon thus causing the journey to take 10 years. | ||
| − | In the story, now widely translated and adapted for modern audiences, {{w|Circe}} warns Odysseus of the {{w|siren (mythology)|Sirens}}, who sing beautiful songs that lure sailors towards their shores, just to doom the boats to sink upon the jagged rocks surrounding their islands | + | In the story, now widely translated and adapted for modern audiences, {{w|Circe}} warns Odysseus of the {{w|siren (mythology)|Sirens}}, who sing beautiful songs that lure sailors towards their shores, just to doom the boats to sink upon the jagged rocks surrounding their islands. |
This comic reframes the advice as if Odysseus was being told to ignore the incorrect instructions of a {{w|Satellite navigation device|GPS-linked routefinder}}, rather than the Sirens. Errors, omissions or out-of-date information in the databases used by such devices famously have sent drivers down roads they might never have even tried to use (guided by printed maps, road-signs or even past experience) without the alluring voice of the 'infallible' dashboard device leading them through too-narrow lanes, into rivers or even hundreds of miles completely out of their way - perhaps to a destination similarly-named to their intended one. GPSs did not exist during the time the poem was written,{{citation needed}} so this could not be the case here. | This comic reframes the advice as if Odysseus was being told to ignore the incorrect instructions of a {{w|Satellite navigation device|GPS-linked routefinder}}, rather than the Sirens. Errors, omissions or out-of-date information in the databases used by such devices famously have sent drivers down roads they might never have even tried to use (guided by printed maps, road-signs or even past experience) without the alluring voice of the 'infallible' dashboard device leading them through too-narrow lanes, into rivers or even hundreds of miles completely out of their way - perhaps to a destination similarly-named to their intended one. GPSs did not exist during the time the poem was written,{{citation needed}} so this could not be the case here. | ||
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Normally, the sea voyage from the City of Troy to Ithaca should take much less than ten years. For Odysseus it took so long because of the many obstacles he had to face, so the navigation system would have some sort of clairvoyance function built in. | Normally, the sea voyage from the City of Troy to Ithaca should take much less than ten years. For Odysseus it took so long because of the many obstacles he had to face, so the navigation system would have some sort of clairvoyance function built in. | ||
| − | "Route crosses an international border" and "Route includes a ferry" are standard warnings included in a route description. The | + | "Route crosses an international border" and "Route includes a ferry" are standard warnings included in a route description. The latter alludes to the fact that Odysseus made the voyage by sea. "Route includes capture by the goddess {{w|Calypso (mythology)|Calypso}}" is not normally something that a navigation system would warn about or could know about,{{Citation needed}} but this indeed happened to Odysseus in Homer's tale; he was kept on her island Ogygia for seven years. |
| − | + | "Route includes a ferry" also hints at one of the other times [[461: Google Maps|Randall tried to follow GPS directions]]. | |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
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