Modern navigation builds on older ideas

The final comparison treats natural wayfinding as the starting point for more formal systems, while acknowledging that human intuition can mislead. Satellite navigation becomes celestial navigation with artificial lights, and inertial navigation becomes a refined form of dead reckoning. Each system extends an older human capability by providing better references, measurements, or error management. Ships can already combine GPS with thrusters to hold the same position even in difficult weather. The next major change may come through navigation management and automatic control rather than an entirely new source of position information.