Virtual hole in the fence
We all wish we had a bigger hole in the fence from time to time. Some way to see what is going on over there. A higher vantage point, or better binoculars. A walk around the block (with the dog as distractive camouflage), to find out what’s new in the neighbourhood. Nosy? For sure.
Technology has been given a great boost with the availability of tools such as Google Earth. Not the first, not the best, but one where the price works and our desktop becomes a platform for virtual exploration. Look, there’s our house. Look, there’s our campsite. Look, there’s the Eiffel Tower, without the crowds and the high prices. If you haven’t gone for a glimpse, it will still be there tomorrow. Always in daylight.
Any tool in time will evolve new uses. Search for a lost pilot in Nevada (in a team). Watch for traces of genocide in Africa with the before/after comparison of villages. If it’s been burned out and covered over, then something is suspicious. Yesterday I went for a virtual examination of the new neighbourhood around a relative’s retirement quarters (is there any green space nearby?) Today, the news mentioned that the recent uprisings and repression in Burma will be verified with the help of Google Earth.
While I’m in awe of those little tidbits of my virtual world, I try to remember that we’re only getting the scraps from the big table. The military have had satellite surveillance for decades, and all the hints dropped in spy thrillers are just that. We won’t be given access to the “good stuff”. Our lives are under the microscope. Another study points out that it’s not just satellite photos. Soon, anything we say or do will fail to disappear from the collected/collective memory of storage servers. Yes, Virginia, I was wearing a tinfoil hat, even in the early days of the century.
Don’t despair. It’s for our own good. Life down on the ant farm has never been better. Now if technology could find my missing keys.
