I Don't Know If I'm Impressed or Scared

What if you could take a virtual trip around the world, and see all the landmarks you ever wished to see, all from the comfort of your easy chair?

Well, it's possible with Google Earth.

This impressive technology combines aerial photographs, satellite imagery, GPS, and 3-D modeling to create a comprehensive view of the world. Not only that, but Google has added their effective searching technologies, so you can find a specific location quickly.

Now the entire world is not yet captured in high-resolution, but what I had seen impressed the hell out of me. Not only that, but due to the incredible detail, it also scared the hell out of me. I am currently thankful that I live in a small community, as the detail is rather poor, but then I made the error of taking a trip around the world.

My first stop after leaving my humble home was Seattle. While zooming in on the metropolis, I found the stadium, and much to my surprise, there was a game at the time the image was obtained. I nearly fell off my chair when I could identify individual players on the field. Now, I should also mention that the resolution wasn't so good that I could read the numbers on the back of their jerseys, but the detail was good enough that I had to consider how this technology could be perverted in the wrong hands.

I flew across the Earth. I visited Seattle, Victoria, Toronto, Ottawa, Liberty Island, Washington DC, Paris, London, The Hague, Red Square, Giza, Beijing, Sydney, among others, and identified countless landmarks without aid of the map. I saw landmarks that I could only dream to visit.

And seeing is exactly the same thing that scared the hell out of me.

You see, Google Earth also supports GPS integration. In other words, if you want to know the coordinates of a landmark, Google Earth will allow you to program those coordinates into your GPS. An extremely powerful tool.

But, what if you were a terrorist?

GPS machines are so accurate, that you can use them weapons guidance systems. Well, here's the caveat: Militaries of the world have known the potential for GPS, and have forced the manufacturers to build-in error into the GPS units that are sold to consumers. Thus, it becomes much more difficult to program a "target" into your GPS.

But the error can't be so large that you can't get to where you are going. And therein lies the paradox.

...

Actually, I'm not going any further than this. You can draw your own conclusions.

The truth is, nobody wants to be a target. But I get very scared when I see images in the public domain that can clearly depict people walking down the street.

If you know where to look, you can actually see me giving the finger to the satellite that took my picture.