Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/25/the-google-maps-satellite.html
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But are they actual engineers?
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I seem to recall Bird’s Eye View as a label on someone’s map app.
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Excuse me?!?! It’s not the engineers who insist on factual communication that plunged the world into fascism. Quite the opposite, it’s the morons who say “who cares as long as it fits on a button” that have created the post-fact world we live in.
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Originally for sure (creationists with degrees in mechanical engineering were the original model for the trope) but now it’s all “software engineers” so not really, but it’s definitely the same Type.
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Or not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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It’s not true birds eye view unless the app gives me the ability to poop on things/people.
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Bird’s Eye is also a term used by Bing:
https://blogs.bing.com/maps/2017-11/over-450-areas-of-birds-eye-imagery-now-live-on-bing-maps
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Google is just trying to downplay their surveillance bird technology.
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Considering how often I hit something wrong on the track pad/website directional buttons when I’m trying to move my position in satellite view, “bird’s-eye-view” for me is often looking up from the actual street level – weird perspective – so I’d say they should have called it “pigeon’s view”.
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I was misled! I honestly thought all of Google’s “satellite” images were taken by actual satellites.
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If these engineers were required to take social psychology, they’d realize that with a little delayed gratification, this presents a perfect opportunity for future pedantism, which will actually solidify the true nature of the photographs. Kinda like how college students can’t stop telling everyone how everything they learned in high school history class was a LIE! Had they never been misled in the first place, the viral update would not have the same punch…
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Nope. Clever, clever birds.
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I liked it when Google Maps used to have a sense of humor. I remember when you could ask for walking directions between Boston, MA and London, England and it would provide a “swim across the Atlantic” step.
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Bless your heart
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Talk about the Eternal September and you get called elitist. But give people the freedom to speak their mind and connect with like-minded people from around the world and you get blamed for not enforcing social hygiene.
I wish the wanna-be social engineers would make up their mind - is the average human being a dumb little shit who must be controlled for his own good or not?
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I’d pay for this functionality 
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@beschizza I don’t understand why it’s not “Actor syndrome” - the whole idea behind using famous spokespeople in ads, etc, is that “my fame and expertise as an actor makes me an authority on product X”. You may claim I’m arguing ‘no true scotsman’, but any good scientist - of which engineers are a subset - is willing to acknowledge the limits of their knowledge. I’m not saying engineers are exempt from thinking they know more than they do - they’re people, after all - but I don’t understand why you’re singling them out from, say, doctors, who are just as well-known for the same kind of fallacy.
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