Member-only story
UFOs and Aliens
I wish I had had today’s tech when I was young and my father was at sea. My son and I live in different states. We speak daily, and in doing so, he created a game for us to play. Our game: we virtually navigate the streets of his San Jose world, share-screen mode on. We’re using Google Maps, 3D real landscape. He taps on the map, and we move down the road. It’s actually quite fun. In a way, he is kind of learning to drive. If he gets out of his lane, I correct him, in dramatic ways that results in laughter. I have him read street signs and the names of businesses. We identify clouds and landmarks. Impressively, he has a solid mental map of his environment. Without guidance, he has driven me to his school, to his favorite store, Autozone- thanks a lot, ChrisFix!, to the hockey rink where he plays- go Maple Leafs!, to the arena where the Sharks play,- go Sharks!, to the parks he frequents- go kids!, and to his martial arts class- go Wushu! Pretty good for a seven year old. We also drive randomly, just for the fun of ‘driving’ google maps, chasing shadows, watching the spiderweb pattern of electric wires crisscrossing magically across a dynamic sky. And so here we were, yesterday, in Dallas, together in person before he flew back home to San Jose, driving San Jose streets, when he paused to ask: ‘what is that.’ I was asking that myself, but before I could speculate, he was all excited, “I found a UFO!” Go Google Maps!
