It's true that the technology and concept behind Seadragon is absolutely phenomenal--it's hard to imagine the ability to access that much information, that quickly, and all in one place. Ben's also brought up a good point in that the Seadragon and Photosynth technology could definitely be used for things like facial recognition. Talk about design that has the potential to do something really good!
Potential is a big word, though, and there's something about Seadragon that kind of worries my tech-wary side. How many other potentially Orwellian uses does Seadragon have? Anyone who's able to be photographed--really, anyone at all, considering the power of our satellites--has to deal with the possibility of being tracked in a hyper-linked, super quick, high-res database, for whatever reason the user deems acceptable. Kind of scary.
With the possibility for completely virtual walk-throughs and tours of thousands upon thousands of cities, tourist attractions, and the like, what becomes of our non-virtual world? Will Seadragon become an incredible catalyst for physically getting to know the world and actually traveling, or will it allow us to cocoon ourselves even further into our huge HD monitors and custom-made comfy reclining leather desk chairs? Does this kind of technology put us on the path to a world where social networking is the only real socializing we do?
Wait and see.
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