Study Question #2-Labyrinths

Labyrinth:

1.
an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.
2.
a maze of paths bordered by high hedges, as in a park or garden, for the amusement of those who search for a way out.
3.
a complicated or tortuous arrangement, as of streets or buildings.
4.
any confusingly intricate state of things or events; a bewildering complex.
5.
(initial capital letter) Classical Mythology. a vast maze built in Crete by Daedalus, at the command of King Minos, to house the Minotaur.
6.
Anatomy.
a.
the internal ear, consisting of a bony portion (bony labyrinth) and a membranous portion (membranous labyrinth).
b.
the aggregate of air chambers in the ethmoid bone, between the eye and the upper part of the nose.
7.
a mazelike pattern inlaid in the pavement of a church.
8.
a loudspeaker enclosure with air chambers at the rear for absorbing sound waves radiating in one direction so as to prevent their interference with waves radiated in another direction.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006

Whoa...that's a lot of definitions for one word. However, for my purposes I think definitions 1, 3, & 4 are mainly what I'm thinking about.

Tokyo certainly can be described as a labyrinth. I constantly find myself getting lost in this city, and I'm scared to wander in fear that I'll go into some weird sub-neighborhood and never find my way out onto the main street again. The buildings here are so tall that you can never see very far ahead where you're going. The labyrinth of Tokyo is incredibly intricate. While less attention was paid to the overarching layout of the city, each neighborhood or district was built to be shaped in its own unique way. While this clearly makes things more confusing for the traveller or non-Tokyoite, people who live here must know their own neighborhoods in a very intimate way. In order to get around easily, one must understand where every side street and back alley in their neighborhood leads and how to get from every potential point A and every potential point B in the most expedient way.

Technology is changing this relationship of people to their areas, especially in Tokyo. Rather than having to know everything by rote memory, we have sophisticated GPS systems to tell us where we're going. If we get lost on our way to a friend's house, all we need to do is use our cell phone to call them and figure out where we're going. Maps of areas are posted on the internet and widely available to anyone that needs one. Tokyo's labyrinth is becoming demystified by technology. This is great for someone like me who has a terrible sense of direction to begin with and only gets more confused in a place where I have trouble reading a lot of the street signs, if there even is a street sign to read.

But I think technology is also beginning to enable people too much. It's so frusterating to be in a car where the GPS is babbling at you to turn around when you know you're going the right direction. And I hate it when cab drivers get lost because navigation can't find the location I'm going to. Because its so easy for me to have people give me directions, I never bother to orient myself and I need the same directions in reverse in order to get home. As the technology gets better, I think this problem is only going to get worse. It will be so easy to get somewhere but people will think less about how they got there. While better technology will certanily allow more people to travel further, it will make people less aware of the world around them. People will be better connected to each other but will not understand how they are connected.