I downloaded the latest iteration of Google Earth.
It fulfilled one of those fading childhood desires; Now I can experience the giddy rush of feeling like a supervillain as I scan the globe for targets and pinpoint coordinates.
If I could figure out how to hook it up to voice commands that would be totally boss.
"Pan left."
"Enhance."
"Enhance."
There are some sweet upgrades to this version, including 3-models.
The utility of this kind of simulation stretches my imagination. I'm not sure exactly what it's capable of at the moment, but I'd like to see a shared database of memory/photos. You could pinpoint a street corner and see all the different memories in a certain vicinity.
It would eventually become a many-dimensional map - time and memory and movement. Lay down a multicolor route map of your travels. Photos bud from the route, nodes on the path. See how many people share your path.
Make future promises to meet - another dimension. Lay out Temporary Autonomous Zones and mark their passings (defeating the purpose, but whatever).
Cities can use this for planning. Transportation officials should spend time studying the topology. Show food supplies - let us track how much goes to waste in this world of plenty.
Mark out the dwindling rainforest. Every so often stream real-time footage of its destruction. Do the same with the ice caps. Or show the ozone layer with its holes.
Highlight areas ravaged by natural disasters and link up with charities serving those areas.
Sync it up with demographics. View worldwide crime. Or literacy.
Grab a bit of Fuller's dream.
Of course, there are still limits on the resolution of certain areas, which I think is completely bogus. Open it up.
Let us all see.
2 comments:
Aren't those resolution limits because the satellites haven't scanned those areas closely yet?
I had always assumed that certain images are deliberately kept at lower resolutions for "national security purposes." My conspiracy-lovin' mind.
The wikipedia entry on Google Maps seems to give this a mild confirmation.
I remembered GPS and how, when consumer technology was new, the government restricted its accuracy (useful for missile guidance). That's loosened up quite a bit - free market you know - but there are still limits.
Individualized globalization is a danger to traditional power structures. Spaceship Earth! Resurrect the Dymaxion Paradigm! One-Town World!
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