XplanaZine

Transcript

Some of my best memories have come from getting lost — you know, ending up in strange, off-the-beaten-path places because I took a wrong turn or missed a particular exit. Those kinds of "accidental" explorations have lead me to meet fascinating people, find cool museums, and even discover an unexpected archeological wonder or two.

Now, in my case, I’ll admit that taking a wrong turn isn’t such a strange occurrence. It seems I’m one of those rare people who was born without any kind of a natural sense of direction. Put me inside a building and I have no idea whatsoever where anything is in the outside world. My entire teaching life has been filled with the bemused smiles of my students as I have stood in the classroom pointing in the wrong direction at various landmarks on campus.

Heck, my friends won’t even drive with me at night, since the only way I can navigate is by visible landmarks. My wife, well, she claims it could be an apt metaphor for my life.

All this to say that, in my book, getting lost isn’t such a bad thing. In fact, it can be a pretty good way to find yourself or something else.

Which is why I’m looking at the new megahighway being built in Texas with more than just a bit of apprehension. This bigger-than-life project is designed as a 4,000-mile transportation network that will cost approximately $175 billion over 50 years. And we’re not talking about your regular highways, here. These megahighways will be up to a quarter-mile across, having as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, even broadband transmission cables.

According to supporters, these megahighways are needed to handle the expected NAFTA-driven boom in the flow of goods to and from Mexico and to enable freight haulers to bypass heavily populated urban centers on straight-shot highways that cut across the countryside.

You know, when I think about it, the pitch sounds a lot like Internet2 or a number of other ambitious projects designed to provide researchers and other high-bandwidth users special pipelines, away from the congested intersections of the regular folk.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m actually a big supporter of Internet2 and, for that matter, I’m pleased as punch that there will be fewer trucks on the highway when I go to visit my brother in Arlington. But with all the attention on "straight-shot," get-there-as-quick-as-you-can travel, I just want to put in a few words for the not-so-straight paths. If you don’t mid, a word or two for the byways.

You see, as much as I love Google and the fact that it helps me find what I’m looking for so efficiently, there is actually a lot to be said for stumbling around in the dark. As a graduate student, I found many important references by wandering around the library stacks. On the Internet, I continue to find some of the most valuable treasures through "accidental" searches — casual clicking through interesting links.

I guess that’s the real limitation of Google and other search engines, even ones like Kartoo that attempt to map out the unexpected. Ultimately, they don’t really know where I want to go. They all operate on the assumption that I have a single or primary destination in mind. And, in their efforts to be efficient on my behalf, they often deprive me of discovery.

In reality, both travel and research are not all that clean. And seldom, I have found, is the best distance between two points a straight line.

So, I guess I’m ready for a new search engine, one that’s more like the spaghetti of small roads in southwest Texas. When I put in a term to search, I want it to show me all of the things I would ordinarily never associate with that term. And then I want it to recommend the spots most likely to have some hidden treasure.

As for Texas and its megahighways, I think I’ll turn left on the next farm-to-market road and see where that takes me instead.

And now, for the good stuff.

The Good Stuff

ABC Names "Bloggers" People of the Year

Japan Pins Tourism Hopes on PDA

Craigslist Costs Newspapers Millions

Broadcast Information

podcast feed
i-podder download