Gone are the days when we pulled off to the side of the road, twisted a map this way and that, and squinted in exasperation before saying, “We’re lost.” Now, a network of satellites that circles the earth points us in the right direction. The Global Positioning System is embedded not only in our phones but in our cultural history and our future. GPS, intangible but ubiquitous, has instigated a radical shift in our relationship to our own intuition and place in the world, making us critically dependent on technology we forget is even there.

Little Blue Dot uncovers GPS’s origins as a product of the Cold War, from the Space Race to the bombing campaigns in Vietnam, following along as its military and civilian uses expanded and shifted to become part of the fabric of modern life. With pulsating detail and witty expertise, investigative reporter Katherine Dunn takes us on a fascinating journey from the origins of the technology to its modern-day iteration, considering its role in international politics and conflict—and its rising vulnerabilities to manipulation. Initially a cog in the wheel of globalization, GPS has now taken on a new life and may even serve as a parable for the proliferation of AI and newer technologies on the horizon. Sharp and evocative, Little Blue Dot considers the future of GPS, its impact on our understanding of space and time, and the role of technology in our lives.

The author recently took time to answer seven questions from Porchlight about her new book—and some others that have inspired her along the way. 

◊◊◊◊◊

Porchlight Book Company: Writing a book is no small undertaking. What compelled you to write this one?

Katherine Dunn: It’s my firm belief that most books get written because you see someone else write one and think they’re not the brightest bulb, so why can’t you do it too? I have tactfully forgotten who this person was for me, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been this inspiration for several others. So that was the first reason I felt compelled to write a book—basically, because I had no idea how hard it actually is.

Second was because I’d been writing about GPS interference since 2018, and my editors were sick of it and wouldn’t let me write anymore. I’d written two different series for two different publications, and they were all very supportive, but eventually everyone was like, “we get it, you’re really into GPS.”

I had to find a new way to keep reporting on this, and thankfully nobody in publishing had heard that interference was a problem yet! 

PBC: Writing (and reading) always prompts as many new questions as it offers answers to the ones you came to it with. What is one unanswered question you encountered as you wrote the book that you are most interested in answering now?

KD: This is a really interesting question. I think even I underestimated the extent to which a book about GPS would be a book about physics—particularly the physics underpinning the globe’s size, shape and gravitational field—and the extent to which it would be about bombs.

This was quite a shock because I am a business and energy reporter, and I was encountering areas that were really new to me, though of course not new to others. I think one question I have is that a lot of the originators of GPS thought that this tool for precision bombing would make war a bit more “humane”—you could bomb a factory, and you would be less likely to accidentally hit a school. And yet the era of conflict we’re in now shows that hospitals and schools are still getting bombed . . . and it’s not accidental.

It’s a dark ethical question that I thought about after this book. Technology is not inherently good or bad. But why can’t we use it to be, well, better? Why do we as a species keep doing this? 

PBC: If there is only one thing a reader takes away from reading this book, what would you hope it to be?

KD: I think the thing they’re likely to take away is that GPS is in everything, and it’s vulnerable.

But what I personally would like them to take away is a chance to think about our relationship with technology. Why do we tend to trust it so instinctively? How can we use it for what it’s good at, but also retain our own senses and intuition? 

PBC: One of the great things about books is that they tend to lead readers to other books. What book[s] related to this topic would you recommend people read after (or perhaps even before) reading your book?

KD: Another book I think readers are likely to enjoy if they liked my book is Chip War by Chris Miller. It also combines history and geopolitics and is a much faster read than you’d expect—short chapters, very pacy. I took it as a model for how to write about a technical subject but also to make the pace feel fast.

There’s another book, which is now out of print, called Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age, by Matthew Brzezinski. You can get it second hand. It switches back and forth between the US and the Soviet space programs right after World War II, and is a really great read. After I read it I knew I had to devote at least a chapter to Wernher von Braun.

Similarly, Michael J. Neufeld’s book Von Braun is a masterclass in biography. He combed both the American and the German archives and it was quite controversial when it first came out. It’s a portrait of this man who is an incredible paradox: a great manager, very good with people, a Christian . . . and a former SS officer who seemed to be totally indifferent to the human impact of the weapons he built. It’s a book I suggest to anyone who is interested in understanding the ‘tech titans’ of today. 

What is your favorite book?

I’m a big nonfiction person. It’s got to be Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe—a modern classic for a reason! A runner-up for me is Putin’s People by Catherine Belton. I’ll read anything about modern Russia, and this one is the best. 

PBC: What are you reading now?

KD: I’m currently reading The CIA Book Club by Charlie English, about the Polish resistance in the 1980s and the CIA program to smuggle in banned books. I also just finished two great books: Stasiland by Anna Funder, another modern classic, about East Germany, and Users by Beeban Kidron—about the impact of Big Tech, especially on children. This one is about to come out in a couple weeks, and it hit me hard because I have a three month old daughter.

These books all have a theme, actually: how surveillance is used in totalitarianism, and how to resist extreme surveillance. Uplifting! Anyways, I started sleeping with my phone outside the bedroom because of these books and I think anyone who read them would do the same. 

PBC: Do you have any future projects in the works that we can look forward to?  

KD: Honestly, like I said above—I have a three month old baby! She’s my main project for the next year or so. After that, we’ll see. 

About the Author

Katherine Dunn is a business reporter and editor based in London. She has worked at Fortune magazine, S&P Global, The Wall Street Journal/ Dow Jones and the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, where she contributed to the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, an international network to help improve climate journalism worldwide. This is her first book.