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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Google Earth as an N dimensional space

I'm concerned about the future of Google Earth. Not because it has no future, but because it's present form may not support the future views required of it. The tools that are being added are turning it into a patchwork that will require a gargantuan cleanup effort in the future.

So we have the 3 basic dimensions. To every point we can add 2 more dimensions: macroscopic time in DAYS (2*43 seconds) and and microscopic time (2*43 time units). This would let us watch the evolution of a given point over time. Moving through time in Google Earth would be as easy as moving through space in Google Earth. 
  1. For example posting a movie about a spot would be synchronous with all other movies about nearby spots, creating a picture of the earth at a point in time.
Beyond the physical dimensions, there could be countless virtual dimensions such as: social dimension (demographics of a point or space), economic dimension (economic value of a point, or space), allowing one to travel the physical world through other dimensions (from rich to poor streets), the political dimension, the linguistic dimension (languages at a point on the planet). 

The present tree of filters and overlays on the left of Google Earth is currently a best effort allowing great flexibility. The integration of this tree could be the next level of development.

Since it's all just data out there, I suppose a new Google Earth Prime could someday include extra dimensions for every point, but this application would feel very different as one could move in these extra dimensions. 

Just thinking, and since many have probably had this thought, please comment with links.

Thanks, Steve