Education

Solving the Dead Cat Problem at TU

An event mysteriously titled ‘Solving the Dead Cat Problem’ took place Monday September 28 in the TU Delft department of Architecture and the Built Environment. Rest assured that no actual cats were harmed during the making of the lecture.

Organised by the Geomatics Study Association (GEOS) at TU Delft, the lecture consisted of a presentation by Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google, followed by a Q&A with the attendees. Despite the title, the event had nothing to do with animal control, rather about the relationship between geospatial technology and the future of mobile computing.

The slightly misleading dead cat referred to in the title was actually a reference to a metaphor used by Leon Silver, a professor of geology, when trying to teach field geology to astronauts. The metaphor, as Parsons explained it, emphasizes the importance of context; if someone tells you ‘you find a dead cat’ then all you can know is that the cat is dead. If someone tells you ‘you find a dead cat by the side of the road’, then you can start to understand how the cat died. Though somewhat morbid, Parsons appropriated this metaphor to highlight how context is an integral part of the geospatial technology used by Google. “Information is valuable when you understand context,” he said. “Context is one of the most powerful elements in modern web servers.”

Context is why no two people’s ‘Google map’ looks the same, according to Parsons, and thanks to the commercialization of Geographic Information Systems, we now “live with a generation that will never be lost”. He went on to explain the potential further uses for this technology. For example, having proximity sensors connected to your geographic location could change the way your house warms itself, turning on the heaters when it detects you are on the way home.

While much of the current and future technology mentioned has potential to save time, money energy and change the way we interact with devices, some students brought up very poignant questions. One touched on concerns with transparency and the commercial use of personal information gathered when creating this context, and another mentioned the issues with geo-tracking the movements of children with smart phones. Parsons was quick to emphasise that at Google “trust is important to us” and the legal and societal norms around this technology still have to be developed.

The lecture was certainly eye-opening as to the incredible technological possibilities of geospatial technology, but perhaps not everyone will think it’s the cat’s pajamas.

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