Are you keen on watching films that highlight high-tech computer gadgetry that can locate wherever you are just like in the film "Enemy of the State"? Have you ever wondered or thought it to be so preposterous and was just a part of the inventive imagination of the filmmakers? Well, think again.

The stuff that we have long been watching in techno-thrillers are now not just creations of fertile minds but a reality that is being used not to track villains and desperate heroes but is employed in providing navigation services. The Global Positioning System or more popularly known as GPS is a worldwide satellite navigational system formed by 24 satellites orbiting the earth and their corresponding receivers on the earth.

The GPS satellites orbit the earth and pass on digital radio signals that contain data which it conveys to the receivers. Developed and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense it was originally used to give all-weather round-the-clock navigation capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces. Now it is also untilized for cartography, forestry, mineral exploration, wildlife habitation management, monitoring the movement of people and things and bringing accurate timing to the world.

As it is now being used in civilian applications, anybody can now relish the benefits that the GPS provides. GPS software now functions on Desktop PC's, pocket PC's, Palm PDA's and now also on GPS phones. It can make and manage waypoints and routes a lot easier and even more precise in planning. Alternatively, when you are in the field in which you cannot use a desktop PC, you can use your GPS map software to create new paths.

As we continue to evolve, discover and develop new things, we must also put in our minds that part of evolution is shifting directions and traditions. We may grow and, as described in countless science fiction films, live in Mars in the future, we must discard the concept of cooperation and unity which is the true backbone of humanity. Handheld GPS systems can make the idea of global unity feasible in the near future by making people work closer together.