Terra Bella's Impact On Social Media

The past few decades have had major advancements in technology which has made accessing information as easy as clicking a button. As the use of the Internet has expanded from being solely used by large corporations to being used by every individual on a daily basis, it has opened many pathways of communication and distribution of information. For instance, software such as Google Maps, allows users to plan trips, have a street view of their destination and even directly share their plans on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. In 2008, Google launched a new addition to their mapping software called Google Earth which allows users to access satellite and aerial imagery of Earth. Furthermore, Google has integrated Street View,

Terra Bella states their goal is to “address global economic, environmental, and humanitarian challenges” through the image analytics and real-time imaging services it provides. They already have dozens of satellites in orbit which have the capability to capture hi-resolution video at 30 frames per second. One of their breakthroughs has been having the capability to take a picture from 800 km away and see objects the size of a car while moving at 8 km per second. Furthermore, in 2015 Terra Bella began integrating their infrastructure with Google to incorporate data processing, archiving, and Google’s optimization and machine learning technologies into their repertoire. One of the primary limitations on this technology is that the clips are a maximum of 90 seconds in length and thus not truly real-time. While real-time satellite imaging is not entirely available, it is only a matter of time until this new technology is easily and readily available for the masses. The backing of the second largest corporation, Alphabet Inc., in the world proves the reality of such technology as fact rather than just science fiction. You, Mark, are the VP of Operations and Development of Terra Bella and were recently informed by the CEO regarding a military offer to buy all rights to the technology. The CEO is asking you to be on the board responsible for determining the future of the company and determine the

The technology can also be used to provide and coordinate emergency and disaster relief efforts, such as the recent wild fires in Fort McMurray, giving first responders a visual of the area prior to arrival. While the possibilities and efficiency gains from having such technology are endless, there are also many other issues which must be assessed when considering technology which allows anyone, anywhere, to have full unrestricted access to such information. Thus, there is a major aspect of privacy which comes into play, especially when one has access to a bird’s eye view insides someone’s private property. Furthermore, as noted by Stevenson in his article, Is Scientific Research Value-Neutral?, by choosing to research and spend the limited resources we, as a society, have on a technology, we are making to choice to not fund another. Therefore, the issue in this case is because science is not value-neutral, society should decide if the benefits from investing in technology which provides a real-time birds eye view of the planet outweigh the privacy concerns and malicious use of such