November 23rd, 2009    Virtual Exploration

Last week we stumbled upon a website that displays a 360 degree panorama from the top of Mount Everest. In fact, the site shows 360 panoramas for all sorts of places.

Google Earth, of course, will take you on virtual explorations all over the planet, and you can even go to the moon! As the Google Earth community grows, you can 'zoom down' to more and more places and see actual photos or commentary on people's experiences there.

Even some online map services are now featuring panoramic views so that you can virtually 'walk around' down the main street of a city and see what cars, people, and animals were present when the shots were taken.

It's weird.

You can almost envision a time when all exploration is done from our chairs. With virtual worlds like Second Life, we're not even limited to our own world! You can create a new 'you', go meet new friends, attend college, and go shopping in any number of fantasy worlds available.

Hey everyone -- we're living in Science Fiction!

The only problem with this sort of experience, as neat as it is (come on -- those 360 panoramas are COOL!), is that when we explore like this, we miss out on a lot of the 'uncomfortable' aspects of travel or exploration -- which oddly enough are the aspects of exploration that really make the experiences memorable and worthwhile. Many of us are always seeking out the 'perfect' experiences, and virtual exploration seems to deliver -- we can gaze from the top of Everest without dying of a cerebral hematoma.

Yet often it's the rain, the cold, the insects, or the sense of danger we're surrounded with that fixes an adventure in our memories. 'Perfect' vacations are soon filed away -- they were unarguably nice, but when it comes down to it, they were rather boring. But the time when we almost got bit by a barracuda when we were snorkeling? THAT is a memory that lives on, re-told over and over for years. THAT was fun.

It's going to be interesting to watch this virtual exploration evolve. Perhaps someday any of us that go out and climb trees will be considered 'old fashioned'. Still, Rebecca and I tend to think that no matter how cool 'virtual' life gets, it will never quite capture the magic of sitting in a forest and fully experiencing what it's like to take a single breath -- to be fully present for the most magical and adventurous moments of all -- our everyday life.

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