Google Earth and it’s mapping off-springs have already proven that everything is mapable. And I love maps! But the latest exploration and mapping provided by the engineers at Google — called Trike, makes me feel a bit uneasy.

Trike is used when it’s not possible to drive a car through the area Google wants to map to deliver their wonderful “Street View.” Having myself been doing some remote US real estate searches, I find Street View indispensable and was very disappointed when I could not access a street view of a property I was interested in.

Mapping and GPSing are soon to cover every piece of earth’s terrain, the ocean floor and deep space. With street view you can already peak into people’s back yards. Big Brother is here and he’s mapping everything he can get access to. Now even the last frontiers of the wilderness cannot hide anymore from Trike.

Next, we can probably expect the ability to view just about everything in real time. No more old videos and stills. I want to see what is happening in downtown Sioux City Iowa and Mt. Kilimanjaro now!

Some people may jump to think, “hey, that’s cool”. And it is. Imagine planning your vacation and first being able to see if people are enjoying themselves, if it is crowded, are there long lines? And even more useful, the unibombers and child abductors of the world will have to work harder to dig deeper into the ground to hide.
But if everyplace on the planet is becoming accessible to us in real time – that includes you and I as well! And how would that affect our lives? As live feeds become so abundant I think we have to ask ourselves where this trend might stop. Knowing Google, they will stop just short of Privacy Infringement and No Foreseeable Capitalization.
But for the sake of posting a warning, let’s pretend there are no limits. In that case, what else should Google map? Well, here are some of my thoughts. You are welcome to comment and add your own.

1. Mapping imaginary places
Imagine the impact of Google mapping imaginary places such as Narnia, Oz or Never Never Land. Mapping them could be a literary catastrophe. Treasure hunting will take only a few hours, The Rocky Horror Picture Show would never have happened since no one would get lost . . .

2. Ethical Mapping
For corporate giants who wish to do no harm but their ego driven conscience keeps pulling them in the wrong direction. The app should have an embedded compass.

3. Send a Trike up your butt.
Well, the technology is there. You can swallow a pill and map things from the other direction, all the way through your intestines. So if Given Imaging and Google get together they can offer the US border patrol images of what’s being smuggled in bodies even sponsor “the asshole of the year contest,” allowing live feeds of colons from around the world.