The Virtual World
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
This morning as I coasted to a stop at the crossroads of Home Road and 16 Avenue NW I noticed a small car with a big pole-like-thing on top. It looked like something from a spy movie. I imagined a smooth shifting of roof panels, a silent twisting of gears, perhaps a whir and a beep as this six-foot periscope, circled by lenses and mirrors, telescoped up on the roof of James Bond's Austin Martin. But this isn't an Austin and James Bond is not driving.
This car is more like a Chevy Aveo and the driver is a mid-20ish woman. But like one might imagine in a James Bond film, there is a laptop computer beside her.
On the rear door of the car is a decal. It reads....
Google.
So I know what this is. Its a car traveling around Calgary recording digital images of our city, for Google Earth.
Just then another cyclist pulls up beside me. He looks at the car. He looks at me and says, "I'm going to go on Google Earth in a day or so, type in this intersection, and see if we're in the image."
I laugh, and then wonder when Google will be mapping the insides of our houses. Oooh, it's all just so Orwellian.
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