Google Takes Street View to the Amazon

I doubt very much that turn-by-turn directions from Minneapolis to unnamed and remote regions of the Amazon will be available anytime soon, but it’s worth considering the psychological effects the project may end up having upon the locals when they realize that millions of people from Buenos Aires to Baghdad are cruising the waters and villages in their back yard. As technology’s toolbox of ways to capture and deliver reality continue to improve, perhaps those locations we consider most remote will become some of the most-seen.

Just what is distance these days, anyway? It takes me longer to drive 500 miles than it does to fly 1,000. I’ve had instant conversations with four different people on four different continents at the same time, but couldn’t scream loud enough for anyone near me to hear if I wanted to. I’ve probably seen the New York skyline more times than my own city’s. Yet no matter how far or wide technology takes us, there’s plenty of reality that’s impossible to truly replicate.