Exploring inside and outside

February 23rd, 2023

I am old enough to remember when Google was a top-notch cutting-edge information technology company. Now they are only useful and ubiquitous as any monopolist can be, but they are not (at least outwardly) evil like the other companies of the same ilk. And they have a product that first of all is free, and secondly — is simply the most interesting and with a mind-boggling scope encompassing the world — The Street View on their maps.

I’ve been under the weather recently, but since I started antibiotics I feel like I am getting better. Still, I work from home and that work is only to take care of the most pressing issues. And I don't leave my home at all until I will feel solidly better from a health standpoint. So I am getting a little bored and restless as you can imagine. I don't feel strong enough to engage in any serious reading, and there is only so much music and funny videos on YouTube I can watch. So instead I travel around the world in street view and spend hours at a time completely engrossed in it.

I usually start with one of the random views, look around and move to another random view. It takes no more than ten scenes to find something that will catch my interest — and then I start moving — into this street, and that one and another one. Looking around, moving around just experiencing being in a different place and in a different culture. If the place holds my attention after a while, I then start looking for information about it — its location and history and geography and climate and transport and other local features. And as soon as I might be tired, I just click for another random location and start the process anew.

And there is a curious thing I noticed while doing this — well-off areas are the same everywhere in any country, very anesthetically untouchable and soulless and boring. But the views of the poor (or poorer) areas make my heart hurt with sadness and pity. And then I realize how extremely lucky I was to be born where I was born, into my particular family status and social level in a particular time and place. I got my share of luck and opportunities and safety and comfort. And that is something that is denied to others based only on their background and the randomness of their birthplace. Why is that? And why so many of the people of my own background are hell-bent on keeping it the same way?