As recently as a century ago the idea of viewing the world from above was little more than a fantasy: the airplane was still in its infancy, with rocketry and satellites still decades into the future. Those who could not take to the air had no recourse but drawing in order to represent their world from an aerial perspective. This limitation is difficult to imagine today when access to plan photography is never further than the nearest Internet connection. Anyone with a smartphone has, in essence, the entire world in their pocket.

Forbidden City, Beijing, China. Image Courtesy of Daily Overview. © Satellite images 2016, DigitalGlobe, Inc

As recently as a century ago the idea of viewing the world from above was little more than a fantasy: the airplane was still in its infancy, with rocketry and satellites still decades into the future. Those who could not take to the air had no recourse but drawing in order to represent their world from an aerial perspective. This limitation is difficult to imagine today when access to plan photography is never further than the nearest Internet connection. Anyone with a smartphone has, in essence, the entire world in their pocket.
Paris, France. Image Courtesy of Daily Overview. © Satellite images 2016, DigitalGlobe, Inc

What do we do with this power" In becoming a civilization capable of producing these databases, we have increasingly altered the Earth to better suit our needs. The images which satellites...