Wednesday, August 15, 2018

A questionable search engine encounter

As I was ambling down Foster Street on 08/08, I spied a newfangled Google Maps car filming the area with a 360° lens. While the gadgety car snapped my photo I tried shooting in return, to frame the Bug in my camera; but alas, my drawback was too slow, even though I’m recently returned from decades in the Wild West.

Being captured so unexpectedly, I glanced where I had stood moments before, in hopes that I had not presumed too slovenly a posture to be marked on my permanent State College record. The dynamic doodlebug pressed forward, it filmed a woman carefully pushing a baby in a perambulator; then in front of the curious baby I sensed another stir and became excited for a young couple, as their freshly-surveyed teacup poodles would be featured on a new map.

The all-seeing car then wound through other avenues, leaving me behind in the dust. I wanted to question the driver, being curious about his job with its weird and waspy ways. I imagine the driver stops for lunch. He would know good diners from his maps. He probably has a list of snappy answers ready for inquisitive passersby: Can Google illuminate maps for blind people? What type of protection does the camera car have? How many miles does it film on a normal day? In what types of settlements do you encounter the friendliest folks? How much of everything does Google vacuum up? Does it sniff information from all nearby devices; for use later in a valuable database? How do our munificent mapping overlords purport the measure the quality of a good college town?


Besides simple streets, what other dead ends will the futuristic car with its many-faceted tools capturing our immense data, help us to avoid?

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