Big companies like microsoft and google are searching for efficient technologies to map the earth. photosynth will be able to sift through millions of flickr pools and metadata(*.exif), to create a 3d point cloud of nearly every photographed space on earth harvesting our collective memories and organizing them for us in a hybrid 2d/3d environment. It's only a matter of time before some software genius figures out how to harvest high-def youtube footage, live streaming cellphone feeds from qik.com, traffic cams, google street-view, and live-satellite imagery.
Will this program fullfill David Brin's dream and provide a new medium for the "transparent society", or will this just add to the goverment's fine arsenal of surveillant technologies?
No comments:
Post a Comment