The Map is not the Terrain

I would have been very excited to have access to Google Earth back when I was in college learning Geology for my BS degree. It would be fantastic for Geography and Archaeology as well, because you can use the aerial photos (not satellite, that's incorrect) to track likely sites for habitation. Combine with Tiger files and ground penetrating radar you should be able to find all sorts of interesting features worth investigating further by survey. I really wish they'd get around to adding USGS geology reports to layers at Google Maps/Earth so you can click on them, or that they'll be integrated into a Time feature. Slide backwards and you can scale a play function and see how the earth changes shape, based on available research. This is a far better use of mapping technology than that silly Climate change nonsense. Good Tiger files will show you the old roads, and where they lead. Some of these are covered in scotch broom and manazanita and madrone forest, as if they never existed. Some are still there and lead to interesting places, many lost to history and a new economic reality. When I see a Ghost Town, a recognize it was once populated, perhaps crowded, and is now completely gone, or a fragment remains of what it once was. This is particularly true up here in the Gold Country.

I encourage people with internet access to use Google Maps and Google Earth and just explore. You find the most fascinating things. Pick a random point and see what you can see. I found some amazing islands just off the NW coast of France, populated, with roads, and a causeway that replaced a former ferry system and various rowboats going back and forth. Imagine that. As humans gain sufficient inclination and resources, more and more places will end up developed. Even with energy getting expensive, comfortable living is more and more possible thanks to cheap solar power and modern mass production of building materials. Someday the people in Thailand will have the same living standards as ourselves. Someday Africa will have Taco Bell franchises, and Burger King. Its coming. Pick any place with water and the common American and European stuff will eventually get there. KFC will probably be right after 7/11. Africa is the new frontier.