Free Wheelin'

A just machine to make big decisions

Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision

We'll be clean when their work is done

We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

IGY – Donald Fagen

There are times, after Jeopardy, when the Mets have an off day, when we have caught up with MotoGP, World Superbike and MotoAmerica, that we dive deep into the various shows that seem to come and go like the ebb and flow of some programming tide.

It was during one of these safaris that we met Mrs. Davis.

The show began with the Templar Knights on October 13th, 1307. It was not a good day for the famed order. Of course, the most over-used MacGuffin – the Holy Grail – becomes part of the story.

But in the next scene, we are back in the "present day" whenever that is and the world is kindly (maybe) being run by a worldwide Artificial Intelligence that calls itself Mrs. Davis. If this AI looks like Geena, we’re all in.

This might be just another cable sci-fi offering except for the timing of it all.

Today the head scientist that created the algorithm that started the entire AI narrative, Geoffrey Hinton, quit Google after a decade, claiming that “Bad actors, could use it for bad things.” Ya think?

Everywhere I look machines are more and more in charge of things that we use to do for ourselves.

Look at routing and simple directions.

A few years back some family were to meet us for dinner, up where we call home – about a long hour’s drive from their place. I was happy to send them directions, but they said they had it covered. But, when they were just a tad late to dinner I asked how they had come up and was surprised that they went 30 miles out of their way to get to us. The all-powerful Waze had sent them in this convoluted way.

I have seen this happen again and again.

Google, Waze, as well as the many phone-style apps like Rever, Best Biking Roads or EatSleepRIDE – may all have their place, but I like to do my own routing, thank you very much.

Like we here at Backroads Central, many of you, our readers, use Garmin's BaseCamp to create your own personalized routes. 

For us, it is a rare occasion, like we need to get somewhere ASAP, that we’ll allow a GPS to create a route for us.

The great thing about BaseCamp is that it was continually updated, and has allowed us to find and discover many roads that might have gotten by us. We love sharing them with you.

The advent of Global Positioning Systems and detailed mapping programs allowed us to move on from the far simpler Rip & Rides we were once known for to more intricate rides and far more fun and interesting ways to get where we were going.

But things and times move on.

We recently got hold of the latest Garmin Zumo XT2. 15% larger screen, even brighter than the previous Zumo XT, running off a 12-volt processor – it is simply a better GPS in a bunch of tiny, but important ways. But, like its predecessor, it does not like to play with BaseCamp.

But there is a go-around…

I had gotten used to using a system of emailing my routes to myself and then using Garmin’s Drive app to upload the GPX routes to the XT. The new XT2 has a new app they call Tread – which allows for the same – instantaneously it seems - but also has several other features, including keeping track of fellow riders, creating routes on the phone, and more. But we’ll get into all that down the road. (Pun intended)

But, the word from Olathe was not all that positive for lovers of BaseCamp, as we were told BaseCamp will not be maintained and that the Tread App will be the future of Garmin.

In the long, long run I do not know how much longer BaseCamp will be working.

In truth, as long as they keep allowing for updated maps for BaseCamp and we can still upload our own and self-created routes I’ll still be a happy camper - but, if it comes down to me pointing a cursor on Point A and then Point B and allowing some route-making AI to make a riding itinerary for me - then I might have to go another way – literally.

We have always said that MAPS stood for Manually Acquired Positioning Systems, and I still know how to operate these and have hundreds of little white index cards perfect for printing out directions.

I really don’t want to be a friend or subject to Mrs. Davis.

I can find my own way, thank you.