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One evening in Februay 2007．a student named Poaula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote road in Wales, She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path．That's when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver or tranin, Her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks．
Ceely's near miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS device(導航儀)，She had never driven the route before．It was dark and raining heavily, Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no mention of the crossing．I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train, she told the BBC．
Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely's story in his book When Machines Fail Us, points the finger at the limitations of technology, We put our faith in digital decices, be says．but our digital hepers are too often not up to the job, They are filled with small problems, And it's not just GPS devices：Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones．to wireless keyboards．
The problem with his argument in the book is that it's not clear why he only focuses on digital technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes．A map makes might have left the crossing off a paper map, Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention, Pertaps the railway and work out that there really is something specifie wrong with the GPS equinment, But stevenson doesn't say．
It's a problem that runs through the book．In a sechon an cars, Stevenson gives an of the advanced techniques that criminal use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars, He offers wo independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country．He says that once again not all new locks have proved reliable, Perhaps, but maybe it's also due to the shourtage of policemen on the streets, Or changing social circumstances orsome combination of these factors．
The game between humans and their smart devices is amusing and compler．If is shaped by economics and psycholog and the culture we live in, Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be a way for a wiser use of technology．
If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines．After all, we have lived with them for tousands of years, They have probaly been fooling us for just as long．
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